Districting Commission inviting public to submit legislative map proposals

The Montana Districting and Apportionment Commission is inviting the public to submit proposals for new state legislative districts as part of the commission’s redistricting work, according to a press release Wednesday.

Free mapping tools are available online and maps can be submitted on the public comment form or to [email protected].

The commission’s state legislative criteria and goals for districts and the public map submission operating procedures can be found online:

• Criteria and Goals for State Legislative Districts, and
• Operating Procedure on Public Map Submissions, and
• Competitiveness Criteria.

The commission listed mapping tool resources, which are as follows:

• Dave’s Redistricting – Free web app to create, view, analyze and share redistricting maps for all 50 states,
• Districtr – Free, public web tool for districting and community identification, and
• District Builder – Software that gives you access to the same block-level data used in legal redistricting plans for free.

More information about the Montana state legislative redistricting process and how you can participate is available at the commission’s website.

The public can view already submitted proposals and provide feedback to the commissioners using the online comment form. The public can attend one of the 10 online or in-person public hearings scheduled in August and September to comment on the maps the commissioners draw. The schedule can be found online.

The commission strongly encourages map submissions prior to July 15 so the maps can be considered before August 2, when the commissioners will release their own district proposals for the public hearings. The commission will be holding their first public hearing in Helena on August 2, per their schedule.

Online resources include:

• General state legislative redistricting timeline
• Public mapping cheat sheet
• Submitted maps
• Regional hearing schedule
• Commission website

The commission updated its Operating Procedure for Public Map Submissions to reflect its interest in receiving public map submissions during the state legislative process. The updated procedure available online.