Sedgwick County tries to avoid gerrymandering accusations by not talking about race

Sedgwick County is trying to avoid questions about voting fairness for racial minorities by simply not talking about race demographics as it redraws electoral district boundaries, county officials said at a town hall meeting.

But residents and voting rights advocates say the county has a duty under federal law to make sure it doesn’t engage in race-based gerrymandering, the practice of manipulating the boundaries of an electoral map to help or hurt a group of people.

“The law is clear that racial gerrymandering is prohibited,” said Sharon Brett, legal director for the ACLU of Kansas. “Local jurisdictions cannot get around prohibitions on racial gerrymandering by claiming that their redistricting process is ‘race-blind.’

“Redistricting commissions must make maps that are fair to all, and being intentionally ignorant of the fairness of the maps you create is not an excuse,” Brett said. “Intentionally ignoring racial demographic data in creating maps has the same effect as engaging in deliberate racial gerrymandering: diluting the strength of minority voters.”

As part of a once-a-decade process, Sedgwick County commissioners are considering 10 maps to balance out the population between districts. The county could pick new district boundaries as early as Dec. 15. Sedgwick County officials provided race demographics for each proposed plan to The Eagle after a request but have not provided that information on the county’s online redistricting dashboard.

The county’s strategy came to light Monday after a flurry of speakers asked the county commission to release details on race, age and socioeconomic changes in each district map.

Sedgwick County Commissioner Jim Howell said the county’s legal department advised commissioners against looking at demographic data.

“I asked about some other things that are included in the Census — if those things are broken down by precinct, if it’s available for us to look at as we develop these maps — and it was encouraged to me by counsel . . . that that’s probably not the best idea. Looking at that data or even having access to that data is probably to be discouraged. That’s the way I took that comment.

“Could you please elaborate on that point?” Howell asked Michael Fessinger, assistant county counselor.

“We’re getting into legal advice that I’ve given you that was not in public,” Fessinger said. “But, again, in my opinion, if you are not considering racial data, then it is difficult for you to be accused of something like gerrymandering.

“And so as far as I understand it, you have not been provided with data that’s a breakdown of races between the 10 plans. But I don’t wish to elaborate further because, again, these are getting into discussions we’ve all had in private.”

Demographics wanted

Nikki Helms, a member of the District 2 Advisory Board, told county commissioners that several of the plans appear viable, but residents have not received enough information about each map to determine whether they’re fair.

“I think we need more information on the demographics — age, race and things like that,” Helms said.

Martha Pint, a member of the League of Women Voters, said the county should form a nonpartisan committee to review the maps before the five-member county commission decides which one to adopt.

“It needs to be based more on the demographics: socioeconomic, housing density, education, all of these types of things.”

Tonya Jacobucci, a member of the District 5 Citizen’s Advisory Board, said the volunteer board would like to see more Census data than raw population numbers.

“We’d also be interested in seeing the socioeconomic status of each of the precincts, the age breakdown of the population, kids versus adults that are voting age, and then also the growth history between the past and the future,” she said.

Judah Craig, chair of the District 1 Citizen’s Advisory Board, said the newly formed board hasn’t had much time to look at the maps but equity is one of its primary concerns.

“We’d like to see minimal change to precincts moving between districts,” he said. “We’re really trying to grasp and get a better understanding of how these affect neighborhoods, voters and just equity as a whole.”

The commission discussed redistricting again at Tuesday’s staff meeting, but they didn’t talk about race demographics. Instead, they are focused on setting a deadline to approve a new map. A vote on the deadline, and further debate, is expected Wednesday.

Commissioner Lacey Cruse on Tuesday said the county should slow down and get more community input on the maps.

“I guess I would just have to ask, what is the purpose of a town hall if we’re not going to listen to those who spoke to us?” she said. “I mean, I didn’t hear one person say, ‘Hurry up and make this finalized.’ If anything, I heard the majority of people saying, ‘Take the time, get community input and make sure that these maps are fair.’”

What is gerrymandering?

Gerrymandering is typically achieved through “packing” (concentrating many voters of the same group into a single district to reduce their influence on other districts) or “cracking” (spreading voters of a particular group across multiple districts to diminish their voting bloc in any one district).

“In most of the maps, the African American community will be distributed all over the districts,” LaWanda Deshazer told commissioners. “And that’s not fair to us, and so I want you to take a real good look at that and how you’re disenfranchising the African American vote.”

Deshazer said the 10 maps also split up Democratic voters, who make up 39% of voters registered either Republican or Democratic. All of the maps maintain a Republican majority in all five districts.

“How do you represent the entire community if you don’t have everybody represented?”

Karen Cayce, who is a Black woman, expressed frustrations with the county’s unwillingness to address racial fairness in its redistricting process.

“So what this is — you say it’s (re)districting or is it gerrymandering or is it redlining?” she said. “I was born and raised right here in Wichita, Kansas. I’ve been here since 1940, and nothing has changed. Can you answer me why? I guess you can’t.”

This story was originally published November 16, 2021 at 5:15 PM.