Here & Now

The Rush to Redistrict Wisconsin's Most Local Offices

Zac Schultz:

While all the focus on redistricting is on state and congressional maps, there is an important step that has to happen first. Wisconsin’s counties, villages and cities will need to redistrict their own maps and they don’t have much time. I traveled to northwest Wisconsin to find out why.

Andrew Mercil:

Most of our growth actually occurred within the city of Menominee.

Zac Schultz:

Andrew Mercil was appointed as the Dunn County clerk just a few months ago and he’s approaching the once-in-a-decade task of redistricting with a good attitude.

Andrew Mercil:

I’m certainly one of the clerks that’s energized by the redistricting process but I love data. I love maps.

Zac Schultz:

That’s good because the redistricting process for local municipalities has been shrunk to around 90 days.

Andrew Mercil:

We’re trying to make sure that nobody will lose out with this compressed timeline but we’re doing the best we can.

Zac Schultz:

As with just about everything, the blame lies with the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed the census collection last year and meant census data clerks were expecting in April just came out last week.

Curt Witynski:

The one hard number we have to comply with is November 23rd.

Zac Schultz:

Curt Witynski is with the League of Municipalities which represents cities, towns and villages. He says local redistricting needs to be done by the end of November so candidates for the spring elections know which district they’re running in. The league got Republicans in the Legislature to pass a bill that would have delayed local redistricting for a year to give them more time, but Governor Tony Evers vetoed the bill saying it wasn’t proper to run spring elections on outdated maps.

Curt Witynski:

We were unable to stay below the partisan radar or the lens through which everyone approaches redistricting. When you use the word redistricting, alarm bells go off. In many cases justifiably so.

Zac Schultz:

Ten years ago, Republicans in the Legislature created maps for state Assembly, Senate and congressional districts in secrecy. They made their members sign confidentiality agreements just to look at them and then passed them in summer fearing recall elections that could have cost them control of the state Senate. That meant local lines were drawn afterwards and had to fit the state lines already in place. That would have happened again if not for the veto.

Curt Witynski:

The order was manipulated in 2010, different than it was prior to that. And that again, raises people’s suspicion and skepticism about any change in any layer of the redistricting process.

Andrew Mercil:

We see a lot of municipalities especially throughout the state that have very strange electoral wards.

Zac Schultz:

Dunn County is split between four Assembly seats. Mercil says it makes for some weird local districts. He hopes letting the locals draw their ward lines first will create a better process even if there’s not much time for public input.

Andrew Mercil:

One of the things we’re concerned about is feedback from individuals who live within the municipalities and the county.

Curt Witynski:

I think there will be an opportunity to participate. Everyone is going to have to be on their toes moving much faster than usual.

Zac Schultz:

Under the redistricting process, counties draw their supervisory districts, then send that info to the towns and villages to draw their local wards, hopefully matching up with county lines. Normally that takes four months.

Randy Scholz:

They’re not going to have their 60-day windows. We’re not going to have our 60-day windows.

Zac Schultz:

Randy Scholz is the Chippewa County administrator. His redistricting team has a different concern. The county board is considering expanding from 15 seats to 21.

Randy Scholz:

Obviously if it goes to 21, there’ll be dramatic changes. If it stays at 15, probably not a whole lot.

Zac Schultz:

Still even with the tightened time frame and an expanded board, Scholz says they’ll be ready.

Randy Scholz:

I think people are confused about what happened with the governor and veto and all that kind of stuff but I guess I just want to let people know as far as Chippewa County is concerned, we’re going to get it done. We’re going to do our due diligence. We’re going to spend the time we need to to get it right.