This project is investigating the effect of redistricting reform on voters of color and increasing communication between voting rights advocates and scholars and redistricting reform advocates and scholars. The Warren Institute will provide a much-needed venue for interaction between voting rights and redistricting reform advocates. The project has three important goals.
1. First, it will start and foster a conversation between redistricting reform and voting rights advocates and scholars.
2. Second, it will conduct and commission legal and social science research to answer pressing questions about the IRCs and minority voting strength.
3. Finally, it will develop research-based policy recommendations for how to ensure that minority voting strength is protected in redistricting reform measures, such as IRCs.
This work is particularly important now, as we are on the cusp of a new wave of decennial redistricting and important questions need to be answered in preparation for the post-2010 Census redistricting. This project is being funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.