RJS pushes to protect marginalized communities by developing new city council district lines

By Renee Diaz

The City of Seattle is currently redrawing its political district lines based on data collected from the 2020 United States Census. By law, each district must have roughly an equal number of people to even out voting power between the districts.

Redistricting is a time that many see as an opportunity to empower communities of color and other underrepresented communities in election seasons, but, as Sean Haney, UW political science student and member of the Redistricting Justice for Seattle (RJS) coalition points out, poorly drawn districts could divide these communities and cause them to lose voting power.

“Institutionally, these commissions unavoidably have an incentive to reward the people who employ them, and we exist to make sure that they don’t do that and give less wealthy communities a voice,” Haney said.

RJS has released their own proposal that aims to avoid issues of inequities and drew a new map of the seven voting districts. They aim to increase voting power amongst people of color and underrepresented groups through redistricting. In addition, the group promotes community engagement, having included over 200 Seattleites and over 20 community-based organizations in the process.

“One district with a 20% Black voting block is more powerful than two districts with a 10% Black voting block each,” Haney said. “The power of Black voters would be maximized by keeping them together, thus forming the highest voting block possible in each given district.”

The four goals of the organization mapping these new district lines are: be transparent with data and processes, have equitable community input, keep communities of interest together, and prioritize communities over incumbent politicians and special interests regarding policymaking. The organization attends meetings that the City of Seattle hosts to identify problems in their maps and looks for solutions based on the data they have collected from underrepresented communities in those districts.

“We want to help the Commission hear everyone’s voices, not just the more privileged folks who have the time,” Andrew Hong, RJS coordinator, stated in a press release. “So we engaged communities of color beyond slated public forums to ensure equity in the process. Our map was drawn by the community to keep communities of interest together.”

The University of Washington currently sits in District 4, which includes Northeast Seattle, the U-District, Laurelhurst, Ravenna, Wallingford, Green Lake, Meridian, and parts of Fremont. RJS’ proposal would unite Fremont under one district, keep District 4 completely north of the Montlake Cut, and see other, minor border changes. The coalition seeks to make the map more inclusive for renters who live off of campus and empower young voters.

“Some proposed changes are to where we draw the borders westward into the Wallingford/ Fremont area in District 4,” Haney said. “RJS has advocated to include more of that area, because that includes more renters. We believe that because most students living outside the university are renters, it would benefit students to have a district composed of more renters than homeowners.”

The Seattle Redistricting Commission is hosting a citywide public forum on Oct. 8 in person and via Zoom. Written comments are able to be submitted via a public comment submission form. The public comment period will be open until the final district plan on Nov. 15, 2022.