PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee has been scheduled to meet Wednesday morning to again consider a preliminary congressional map, one they had planned to vote about on Monday.
Every 10 years, congressional maps are redrawn based on census data.
There are several maps being floated, but David Thornburgh, the president and CEO of election watchdog group Committee of Seventy, said that as there has been talk of transparency and accountability to voters, he still has worries about the process.
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“I'm a little concerned with all the shuffling around in a short period of time that we're not, we're not giving citizens that that opportunity," said Thornburgh.
“The clock of accountability and transparency really only begins when you show people what your thinking is as expressed in a map, which only happened the end of last week. And now it is kind of a follow-the-bouncing-ball exercise to which map we're actually supposed to pay attention to.”
He noted that while it has been a challenge with census data being delayed because of the pandemic, every state dealt with that delay.
Some have already approved their map, while all but a handful are still operating without a preliminary map.
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The State Government Committee put out a map last week that called a jumping-off point, but when the committee met earlier this week, they voted on legislation that would start the process and would allow a map to be plugged in later rather than vote on that map.
Committee Chairman Seth Grove (R-York County) said it would keep them on pace to hit the deadline.
“We need to keep the trains running to make sure we meet those timelines efficiently," he said.
State government minority chair Scott Conklin (D-Centre County) expressed his frustration.
“For transparency reasons, I cannot support a bill that does not have a map attached to it," said Conklin. "It's time for us to start negotiating...we cannot negotiate negotiate by passing a blank map with that.”
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The state Senate hasn’t released their version yet. The governor’s office has been asking residents to submit maps.
Thornburgh said he still believes Pennsylvania can make the Wolf administration's January 24th deadline, giving Congressional candidates enough time to sort out their districts before petitions open in mid-February and avoiding a pushback of the primary election.
If the legislature and the governor can’t agree on a map, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would have the final say,
Committee leaders and Thornburgh all agree it’s in everyone’s best interest to keep it out of the courts.
