Based in Sydney, Australia, Foundry is a blog by Rebecca Thao. Her posts explore modern architecture through photos and quotes by influential architects, engineers, and artists.

Help stop gerrymandering

Help stop gerrymandering

League of Women Voters
To The Community

To the Editor:

The Delaware County, Radnor, and Central Delaware County Leagues of Women Voters urge readers to call or email their Pennsylvania House and Senate members asking them to support PA House Bill 22 and Senate Bill 222, the Legislative and Congressional Redistricting Act.  

This legislation, as currently written, is essential in preventing gerrymandering and ensuring a fair and transparent reapportionment process for congressional and state legislative districts based on the 2020 census results. H.B 22 and its identical Senate companion bill, S.B. 222, need to be voted out of their respective state government committees and enacted in the next few weeks before the legislature breaks for the summer.  

The League supports legislation to ensure the state legislature performs the once-every-10-years reapportionment of districts in public (subject to the Open Public Meetings Act) and draws districts that are:

  • “Contiguous,” with minimal splitting of municipal and county lines between districts.

  • “Compact,” so that no grossly gerrymandered districts, such as Delaware County’s infamous “Mickey kicking Donald” Congressional District 7, are created.

  • Evenly distributed by population (one person, one vote).

If enacted as written, the bills will protect against maps drawn solely to protect incumbents or political parties, or to disenfranchise minority voters.  

This year, as in 2011, Pennsylvania will once again lose a congressional district due to the fact that our state population has shrunk. Back in 2011, the Republican-controlled legislature addressed the situation by merging two districts held by Democrats. As a result, two incumbent Democrats were forced to run against one another, while the Republicans maintained their existing seats. Statewide gerrymandering resulted in a 13-5 Republican advantage in Pennsylvania’s congressional delegation between 2012 and 2018.  

The Pennsylvania League of Women Voters took the state legislature to court over this blatant gerrymandering. In January 2018, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the 13-5 congressional map and redrew it so that the current 18 districts are 9-9, Democratic to Republican. As a result, Delaware County is once again its own congressional district (with contiguous slivers of Philadelphia and Montgomery County included as well).

All four of Delaware County’s state senators, Tim Kearney, John Kane, Amanda Cappelletti, and Anthony Williams, and nearly all of our county’s representatives, are cosponsoring these bills to ensure that the reapportionment process is fair and transparent. Please contact them, identifying yourself as a constituent, and thank them. 

In Delaware County, only Reps. Regina Young (610-522-2290), Joanna McClinton ((215-748-6712), and Margo Davidson (610-259-7016) have not become cosponsors of H.B. 22. Rep. Davidson, the Democratic chair and ranking member of the House State Government Committee, is a crucial vote needed to enact H.B. 22. Contact information for the representatives can be found at swat.ink/PA-reps or by searching online for Pennsylvania House of Representatives. You can find talking points about the bills at FairDistrictsPA.com. 

Anne Mosakowski, president
League of Women Voters of Central Delaware County

Roberta Winters, president
Radnor League of Women Voters 

Olivia Thorne, president
League of Women Voters of Delaware County

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