Posted Might 13, 2022, 6:08 am
Should you stay in Arizona’s fifth Congressional District or eighth
Congressional District, Election Day must be a reasonably easy
proposition.
Should you stay in one of many different seven Home districts, it could be time to tug out a pencil.
These seven districts have been numbered in another way throughout this 12 months’s congressional redistricting, although the districts themselves stayed in largely the identical place on a map of the state.
The modifications will present up for many voters in the course of the Aug. 2 main
elections, when District 1 will grow to be District 2, District 2 will
grow to be District 6 and District 6 will grow to be District 1. Districts 3 and
7 will swap, as will Districts 4 and 9.
Solely District 5, represented by Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Gilbert, and
District 8, represented by Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Peoria, are protecting
their numbers from the outdated map.
One political analyst mentioned Arizona is “type of infamous” for
shuffling district numbers round, however that has sometimes been as a result of
the state has added a brand new district each 10 years. Arizona didn’t acquire a
seat in Congress after the 2020 Census, nevertheless, the primary time in 70
years that has occurred.
“It appears slightly bizarre that they might do that within the one cycle
the place they’re not gaining a seat and all the things may have stayed
comparatively secure,” mentioned J. Miles Coleman, affiliate editor for Sabato’s
Crystal Ball on the College of Virginia Middle for Politics.
“It’s undoubtedly one thing that type of units Arizona aside,” he mentioned.
Regardless of the various modifications coming,
leaders at election rights teams in Arizona mentioned they haven’t heard
a lot concern from voters on the brand new variety of their districts. However they
mentioned voters nonetheless want to concentrate.
“Our suggestion to voters is test your registration, be certain that
you’re registered, test to see should you’re in a brand new district and should you
are, then you might want to educate your self as to who the candidates are in
your district,” mentioned Alex Gulotta, the state director for All Voting is Native Arizona.
Thomas Collins, government director of the Arizona Residents Clear Elections
Fee, mentioned the fee is “undoubtedly aware of the necessity to
name consideration to the brand new districts.” It’s pushing to coach voters
by planning debates amongst main candidates and publishing varied
supplies geared toward introducing voters to their district’s candidates, he
mentioned.
However Coleman mentioned he believes confusion could come up amongst people who find themselves
extra prone to affiliate a district’s quantity with the present or former
lawmakers who’ve held the seat, moderately than its geographic location.
“(In 2018) I might see folks saying, ‘OK, properly, this district, you
know, it’s actually winnable for a Democrat, as a result of that is the seat that
Gabrielle Giffords used to carry final decade,’” he mentioned. “I needed to
right them … ‘Sure, I imply, Giffords did maintain District 8 however on the
time, District 8 was within the Tucson space.’”
The Tucson district that Giffords represented is now often called
District 2, represented by Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Tucson. The present –
and future – District 8 is Lesko’s, within the northwest Valley.
Though Coleman mentioned he understands that shuffling numbers offers
redistricting committees extra freedom after they draw new congressional
maps after congressional reapportionment, “as a political analyst, it
drives me loopy.”
“I do assume that there needs to be another method to do that, as a result of
simply renumbering for the sake of renumbering appears foolish, to be sincere,”
Coleman mentioned.
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