Republicans refused to make changes Wednesday to election maps signed into law last year despite pressure to redraw the maps from a judicial panel that questioned their legitimacy earlier this week.
Democrats are suing Republican legislators claiming the new legislative maps are unconstitutional and violate the Voting Rights Act because they divide certain heavily Latino areas in Milwaukee. Also, the panel of three federal judges hearing the case criticized Republicans lack of transparency or public input in drafting the maps.
At Tuesday’s hearing, the judges overseeing the case told Republican lawmakers they are legally allowed to change the maps and address the issues in the suit, despite Republican claims that a Supreme Court ruling prohibits them from changing the maps more than once every 10 years.
They gave Republican lawmakers until 4 p.m. Wednesday to decide whether they would change the maps.
“Today the Republicans showed disrespect to the federal judges who offered them the opportunity to do this the right way, the Wisconsin way,” Rep. Gary Hebl, D-Sun Prairie, said in a statement Wednesday. “It could have been done in a manner that respected Wisconsin values of openness, public inclusion and transparency.”
Andrew Welhouse, spokesperson for Republican Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, declined to comment on the proceedings Wednesday.
Despite the Republican decision not to change the maps, the lawsuit will continue. Joe Shanksy, spokesperson for Voces de la Frontera, an immigrant-rights group involved in the lawsuit, said the group is “ready to testify in court tomorrow” following the Republican’s decision. The trial will resume in Milwaukee Thursday morning.
The maps were passed last year with a Republican majority in both the state Senate and Assembly. States are required to draw new maps of congressional and legislative districts every 10 years based on the U.S. census to ensure the population is equally distributed between districts.
Last week, a bipartisan pair of legislators introduced a bill that would take redistricting process out of the egislature’s hands and create a bipartisan commission to create new districts.
