WALTER OLSON: Hello, I’m Walter Olson. On behalf of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, thank you, Governor Hogan, to present the fruits of our labors after months of hard work. I want to introduce the full commission first for their work the last seven months. My cochairs, Dr. Kate Hetherington, Alex Williams, and the others standing up here with me.
We are extremely proud of the work of our commission and announce that we have completed with minimal splits compared with some other lots. We want people to understand these maps. (Inaudible).
It was on January 12th of this year that Governor Hogan issued an executive order to our commission. We worked in a fair, impartial manner, without favor to any political party or candidate. The Governor appointed the three of us as cochairs. We then chose the additional six members of the commission, two from each party. We have democrats, republicans, and independents.
(Muffled audio)
I would like to ask my cochair Judge Alex Williams to share more about our process.
ALEX WILLIAMS: Thank you, Walter.
Our work began on May 5th. We held numerous working sessions among commission members to learn the process and to discuss the data and draft maps. Most of our meetings included testimony from the public. Aside from the public meetings, we also held numerous working sessions with the commission to conduct our work. We held three rounds of public meetings to receive valuable input from the public.
Due to the continuing issue of COVID, we held these meetings virtually, through Zoom. We were truly impressed with the response and the engagement from the public, and we had over 231 separate testimony accounts from members of the public. Round 1 occurred between June 9th and July 28th. It included eight regional meetings during which members of the public could share their thoughts and concerns regarding redistricting in advance of the release of census data. Despite challenging time constraints arising from the late arrival of census data, we were able to do our duties in a timely fashion with the input of the public. During round 1, we heard 163 separate testimonies from members of the public and elected officials.
Round 2 was held from September 9th through 20th. Round 2 included four statewide virtual meetings, during which Marylanders were able to submit their own maps and present them to the commission with live testimony, written testimony was also accepted. We had 21 testimonies during this session. During this round, the public was able to submit their own map submissions through a portal on our website.
The commission also held six public working sessions during the month of September to draft maps for public view and comment. This was done with the Voting Rights Act and American experts..
Finally, round 3 was held each Wednesday evening during the month of October, including four public meetings at which Marylanders could present testimony regarding the maps drawn by the commission. Maps submitted by citizens. Or their own map submissions. During this round we heard 46 separate testimonies. Our viewership of all three rounds through Zoom and YouTube was over 4,100 people.
In total, the citizens commission received 86 public map submissions through the portal and email. Each was reviewed by the commission, and each was posted to our website. Commissioners also held public working sessions at the completion of public testimony, in order to suggest and address modifications to maps, including discussions regarding the Voting Rights Act, communities of interest, and other manners of importance to district boundaries.
We are truly proud of the accomplishment of the commission. We’re responsive to public reactions and even revamp our maps in the areas of southeast Baltimore County, St. Mary’s County, the Towson area, southern Montgomery County, and others in response to public requests.
We also addressed issues for communities of interest, including modifying the boundary lines impacting a Jewish community in Baltimore County. As the citizens commission voted upon final proposed maps, each map was posted to the website. The website also included a map viewer to allow residents to enter and address and determine in which district it was located.
The citizens commission also held an additional working session upon completion of round 3 to address additional modifications and suggestions to ensure that the Voting Rights Act was complied with.
I will say, this was a wonderful experience for myself and others. I met new friends. And we had wonderful sessions. We had healthy discussions. We respected each other. We didn’t agree on everything, but we came up with what we think would be reasonable maps that are transparent and independent.
Thank you so much.
By now you likely have a good picture of the work of the volunteer commission. We worked closely as a group with a common mission. Even though we disagreed sometimes, we were always able to talk things through for the best possible outcome for all of Maryland. These outcomes resulted in the final maps that we are presenting today and of which we are extremely proud. During our final meeting this past Wednesday evening, we heard various common themes from the remarks of the commissioners, and they included a sense of pride and the dedication and commitment of the Commissioners; a sense of overcoming challenges in the spirit of compromise to achieve fair results; pride in our responsiveness to the communities that voiced their concerns to our commission; and perhaps one of the biggest compliments was from Professor Nate personally with whom our commissioner worked diligently to ensure our maps would be in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. He is nationally renowned as an expert in redistricting law and the democratic process.
At the end of our meeting on Wednesday, he told us that our commissions should be held out as a model for the way things should be done. It doesn’t get much better than that.
And with that, Governor Hogan, on behalf of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, I present to you our official redistricting maps for your consideration, and we thank you for this opportunity.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you very much.
Well, thank you all very much. Good morning. I think this is a great day for the state of Maryland and for democracy. I want to thank the cochairs, Judge Alex Williams, Dr. Kate Hetherington, and Walter Olson, who have done such a fine job as the cochairs of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, as well as each and every member of the commission for their dedicated service throughout this past year. And I want to congratulate them on their historic efforts to finally bring fairness and balance to Maryland’s political system.
Free and fair elections are the very foundation of American democracy, and the most basic promise that those in power can pledge to citizens. Unfortunately for decades now, Maryland’s political power brokers have conducted the state’s redistricting process in secret, behind closed doors, rigging the system to eliminate competition by concentrating one party’s voters as much as possible while segregating another party’s voters into a larger number of districts. This is exactly the kind of formula that leaves people to doubt whether their democracy is truly working for them, which is why this time we want to make sure that the people of Maryland are actually the ones drawing the lines, not the politicians or the party bosses, so that instead of politicians picking their voters, the citizens will actually get to pick their representatives.
For many years I’ve been involved in this effort at the state and federal level with real bipartisan redistricting reform. We have repeatedly introduced the redistricting reform act in an effort to take partisan politics out of the redistricting process.
Sadly, despite this proposal, as supported by a majority of democrat, republican, and independent voters in Maryland, legislative leaders have repeatedly failed to take any action on it. Instead, they have hidden this in a drawer year after year and refused to even bring it to the floor of the House or Senate for an up or down vote.
This year is the first time ever in state history since 1790 when they did the first census and redistricting that Maryland has ever had a republican Governor during a redistricting cycle. So one party has always had absolute power to carve up districts to benefit themselves, but we’re not interested in drawing republican districts or democratic districts. I want what nearly all Marylanders want, which is fair maps and fair districts.
So earlier this year I issued the executive order which created an independent and nonpartisan commission, charged with preparing fair, honest, and equitable maps for all of Maryland’s legislative and congressional districts. This commission, as you heard, was comprised of citizens, free from any kind of legislative or political influence, through a representative of the state’s diversity and demographics.
The commission was given a clear and simple charge: Ensuring that the people of Maryland are able to choose their elected officials, not the other way around.
I want to thank the thousands of members of the public who have participated in the 36 open public meetings, which have been held by the commission. As a result of all that citizen input, the commission received a total of 86 different map submissions. And this is what real nonpartisan redistricting looks like. Their focus has been on fairness, transparency, and accountability. And these maps actually respect natural boundaries and the geographic integrity of our jurisdictions, communities, and neighborhoods. These fair maps show districts which are geographically compact, that do not take into account how citizens are registered to vote, how they voted in the past, or what political party, if any, they happen to belong to.
They also do not take into account in any way where any incumbent or candidate for office happens to reside. They have been completed with fairness and integrity and full public view. And these fair maps finally bring an end to decades of gerrymandering in Maryland, which has made a mockery of elections. We still have people attempting to redistrict in secret, beyond closed doors. They have yet to release a single draft map or any citizen input, which is the same approach that has been used for decades, which is resulted in giving Maryland the unfortunate distinction of having the worst most gerrymandered districts in America.
So I’m honored today to accept these maps on behalf of the people of Maryland. I am pleased to announce that as the executive order calls for, I will submit these final, certified, legislative and congressional maps to the General Assembly. And today I’m also in just a moment here going to sign a proclamation to bring to Maryland General Assembly and to a special session for the purpose of acting on these maps beginning December 6th.
Once again, on behalf of all the people of Maryland, I want to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission for their service to our state, and I want to thank them for conducting their business with integrity and in a completely open and transparent manner. Most especially for their incredible efforts to finally restore fairness and competitiveness to Maryland elections.
Thank you. I’m going to execute the order.
With that, we would be happy to take questions for me or any members of the team here.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We’re going to attempt to do the right thing. This is how the process works. The Governor submits maps to the legislature, who votes and either accepts the maps, changes the maps and sends them back to us. We’re hoping that this process, the way it’s been conducted — typically the Governor and the legislature meets together behind closed doors in one back room and draws them together. This is the first time this has happened, and this is the way I think it’s intended to happen. I chose not to draw my own maps but accept the ones from this esteemed citizens panel.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: No, I don’t think we need to change the constitution. This is the way the process is supposed to work, we submit the maps and they vote on them.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, first of all, we’re drawing legislative maps in addition to congressional maps which have nothing to do with those other states.
Secondly, this is what an overwhelming majority of all the voters, regardless of political party, accepted. I’ve been pushing — every party is guilty of this, but it’s still wrong. It still needs to change. Some people would say we shouldn’t call for legislative maps in our state because some other state hasn’t done it yet. We typically like to lead; we don’t like to follow. But I think we should be doing this nationwide in every state. Whoever is doing gerrymandering shouldn’t be doing it.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I don’t want to speculate. I’m hopeful that we can get some fair maps passed by the General Assembly. If they choose to blatantly gerrymander, again, I’m going to imagine someone will challenge them in court and the ultimate decision could be made by the Court of Appeals here in the state.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: If we thought the maps were unfair, I would veto them. We try to sustain the veto.
Anyone else?
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, I mean, this is just a sad situation. In is the end of a year-long federal and state investigation that resulted in this individual being charged with 27 counts of fraud at the federal and state level. This was all part of that investigation. It’s an ongoing court case. But, you know, I have been very clear about this numerous times from the beginning, and, you know, not involved. I wasn’t aware of these things. And when we found out, he was charged within a matter of days.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: No. I was part of the investigation. Again, 27 counts of fraud.
Anybody else?
All right. Thank you all very much.
We are extremely proud of the work of our commission and announce that we have completed with minimal splits compared with some other lots. We want people to understand these maps. (Inaudible).
It was on January 12th of this year that Governor Hogan issued an executive order to our commission. We worked in a fair, impartial manner, without favor to any political party or candidate. The Governor appointed the three of us as cochairs. We then chose the additional six members of the commission, two from each party. We have democrats, republicans, and independents.
(Muffled audio)
I would like to ask my cochair Judge Alex Williams to share more about our process.
ALEX WILLIAMS: Thank you, Walter.
Our work began on May 5th. We held numerous working sessions among commission members to learn the process and to discuss the data and draft maps. Most of our meetings included testimony from the public. Aside from the public meetings, we also held numerous working sessions with the commission to conduct our work. We held three rounds of public meetings to receive valuable input from the public.
Due to the continuing issue of COVID, we held these meetings virtually, through Zoom. We were truly impressed with the response and the engagement from the public, and we had over 231 separate testimony accounts from members of the public. Round 1 occurred between June 9th and July 28th. It included eight regional meetings during which members of the public could share their thoughts and concerns regarding redistricting in advance of the release of census data. Despite challenging time constraints arising from the late arrival of census data, we were able to do our duties in a timely fashion with the input of the public. During round 1, we heard 163 separate testimonies from members of the public and elected officials.
Round 2 was held from September 9th through 20th. Round 2 included four statewide virtual meetings, during which Marylanders were able to submit their own maps and present them to the commission with live testimony, written testimony was also accepted. We had 21 testimonies during this session. During this round, the public was able to submit their own map submissions through a portal on our website.
The commission also held six public working sessions during the month of September to draft maps for public view and comment. This was done with the Voting Rights Act and American experts..
Finally, round 3 was held each Wednesday evening during the month of October, including four public meetings at which Marylanders could present testimony regarding the maps drawn by the commission. Maps submitted by citizens. Or their own map submissions. During this round we heard 46 separate testimonies. Our viewership of all three rounds through Zoom and YouTube was over 4,100 people.
In total, the citizens commission received 86 public map submissions through the portal and email. Each was reviewed by the commission, and each was posted to our website. Commissioners also held public working sessions at the completion of public testimony, in order to suggest and address modifications to maps, including discussions regarding the Voting Rights Act, communities of interest, and other manners of importance to district boundaries.
We are truly proud of the accomplishment of the commission. We’re responsive to public reactions and even revamp our maps in the areas of southeast Baltimore County, St. Mary’s County, the Towson area, southern Montgomery County, and others in response to public requests.
We also addressed issues for communities of interest, including modifying the boundary lines impacting a Jewish community in Baltimore County. As the citizens commission voted upon final proposed maps, each map was posted to the website. The website also included a map viewer to allow residents to enter and address and determine in which district it was located.
The citizens commission also held an additional working session upon completion of round 3 to address additional modifications and suggestions to ensure that the Voting Rights Act was complied with.
I will say, this was a wonderful experience for myself and others. I met new friends. And we had wonderful sessions. We had healthy discussions. We respected each other. We didn’t agree on everything, but we came up with what we think would be reasonable maps that are transparent and independent.
Thank you so much.
- HETHERINGTON: Good morning, everyone. As noted earlier, we were extremely impressed with engagement from residents across the state and would like to provide you with some information about our meetings. The commission had in aggregate over 4,000 attendees at our meetings. These included organizational leaders and elected officials. For each meeting, notifications were sent out via press release to more than 46,000 contacts, and these included the media, local, county, state elected officials, and many other organizations and individuals. Our promotional materials were translated into Spanish and distributed to the Hispanic Latinx community by our Hispanic adviser, Gloria Blackwell, founder and director of the University of Maryland office of community engagement. Our public virtual meetings offered in live Spanish translation and closed captioning for the hearing impaired, and this was done in partnership with the University of Maryland Spanish department. We worked very hard to engage the public and make certain that our work was transparent and open.
By now you likely have a good picture of the work of the volunteer commission. We worked closely as a group with a common mission. Even though we disagreed sometimes, we were always able to talk things through for the best possible outcome for all of Maryland. These outcomes resulted in the final maps that we are presenting today and of which we are extremely proud. During our final meeting this past Wednesday evening, we heard various common themes from the remarks of the commissioners, and they included a sense of pride and the dedication and commitment of the Commissioners; a sense of overcoming challenges in the spirit of compromise to achieve fair results; pride in our responsiveness to the communities that voiced their concerns to our commission; and perhaps one of the biggest compliments was from Professor Nate personally with whom our commissioner worked diligently to ensure our maps would be in compliance with the Voting Rights Act. He is nationally renowned as an expert in redistricting law and the democratic process.
At the end of our meeting on Wednesday, he told us that our commissions should be held out as a model for the way things should be done. It doesn’t get much better than that.
And with that, Governor Hogan, on behalf of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, I present to you our official redistricting maps for your consideration, and we thank you for this opportunity.
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Thank you very much.
Well, thank you all very much. Good morning. I think this is a great day for the state of Maryland and for democracy. I want to thank the cochairs, Judge Alex Williams, Dr. Kate Hetherington, and Walter Olson, who have done such a fine job as the cochairs of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission, as well as each and every member of the commission for their dedicated service throughout this past year. And I want to congratulate them on their historic efforts to finally bring fairness and balance to Maryland’s political system.
Free and fair elections are the very foundation of American democracy, and the most basic promise that those in power can pledge to citizens. Unfortunately for decades now, Maryland’s political power brokers have conducted the state’s redistricting process in secret, behind closed doors, rigging the system to eliminate competition by concentrating one party’s voters as much as possible while segregating another party’s voters into a larger number of districts. This is exactly the kind of formula that leaves people to doubt whether their democracy is truly working for them, which is why this time we want to make sure that the people of Maryland are actually the ones drawing the lines, not the politicians or the party bosses, so that instead of politicians picking their voters, the citizens will actually get to pick their representatives.
For many years I’ve been involved in this effort at the state and federal level with real bipartisan redistricting reform. We have repeatedly introduced the redistricting reform act in an effort to take partisan politics out of the redistricting process.
Sadly, despite this proposal, as supported by a majority of democrat, republican, and independent voters in Maryland, legislative leaders have repeatedly failed to take any action on it. Instead, they have hidden this in a drawer year after year and refused to even bring it to the floor of the House or Senate for an up or down vote.
This year is the first time ever in state history since 1790 when they did the first census and redistricting that Maryland has ever had a republican Governor during a redistricting cycle. So one party has always had absolute power to carve up districts to benefit themselves, but we’re not interested in drawing republican districts or democratic districts. I want what nearly all Marylanders want, which is fair maps and fair districts.
So earlier this year I issued the executive order which created an independent and nonpartisan commission, charged with preparing fair, honest, and equitable maps for all of Maryland’s legislative and congressional districts. This commission, as you heard, was comprised of citizens, free from any kind of legislative or political influence, through a representative of the state’s diversity and demographics.
The commission was given a clear and simple charge: Ensuring that the people of Maryland are able to choose their elected officials, not the other way around.
I want to thank the thousands of members of the public who have participated in the 36 open public meetings, which have been held by the commission. As a result of all that citizen input, the commission received a total of 86 different map submissions. And this is what real nonpartisan redistricting looks like. Their focus has been on fairness, transparency, and accountability. And these maps actually respect natural boundaries and the geographic integrity of our jurisdictions, communities, and neighborhoods. These fair maps show districts which are geographically compact, that do not take into account how citizens are registered to vote, how they voted in the past, or what political party, if any, they happen to belong to.
They also do not take into account in any way where any incumbent or candidate for office happens to reside. They have been completed with fairness and integrity and full public view. And these fair maps finally bring an end to decades of gerrymandering in Maryland, which has made a mockery of elections. We still have people attempting to redistrict in secret, beyond closed doors. They have yet to release a single draft map or any citizen input, which is the same approach that has been used for decades, which is resulted in giving Maryland the unfortunate distinction of having the worst most gerrymandered districts in America.
So I’m honored today to accept these maps on behalf of the people of Maryland. I am pleased to announce that as the executive order calls for, I will submit these final, certified, legislative and congressional maps to the General Assembly. And today I’m also in just a moment here going to sign a proclamation to bring to Maryland General Assembly and to a special session for the purpose of acting on these maps beginning December 6th.
Once again, on behalf of all the people of Maryland, I want to express my sincere appreciation to the members of the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission for their service to our state, and I want to thank them for conducting their business with integrity and in a completely open and transparent manner. Most especially for their incredible efforts to finally restore fairness and competitiveness to Maryland elections.
Thank you. I’m going to execute the order.
With that, we would be happy to take questions for me or any members of the team here.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: We’re going to attempt to do the right thing. This is how the process works. The Governor submits maps to the legislature, who votes and either accepts the maps, changes the maps and sends them back to us. We’re hoping that this process, the way it’s been conducted — typically the Governor and the legislature meets together behind closed doors in one back room and draws them together. This is the first time this has happened, and this is the way I think it’s intended to happen. I chose not to draw my own maps but accept the ones from this esteemed citizens panel.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: No, I don’t think we need to change the constitution. This is the way the process is supposed to work, we submit the maps and they vote on them.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, first of all, we’re drawing legislative maps in addition to congressional maps which have nothing to do with those other states.
Secondly, this is what an overwhelming majority of all the voters, regardless of political party, accepted. I’ve been pushing — every party is guilty of this, but it’s still wrong. It still needs to change. Some people would say we shouldn’t call for legislative maps in our state because some other state hasn’t done it yet. We typically like to lead; we don’t like to follow. But I think we should be doing this nationwide in every state. Whoever is doing gerrymandering shouldn’t be doing it.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: I don’t want to speculate. I’m hopeful that we can get some fair maps passed by the General Assembly. If they choose to blatantly gerrymander, again, I’m going to imagine someone will challenge them in court and the ultimate decision could be made by the Court of Appeals here in the state.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: If we thought the maps were unfair, I would veto them. We try to sustain the veto.
Anyone else?
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: Well, I mean, this is just a sad situation. In is the end of a year-long federal and state investigation that resulted in this individual being charged with 27 counts of fraud at the federal and state level. This was all part of that investigation. It’s an ongoing court case. But, you know, I have been very clear about this numerous times from the beginning, and, you know, not involved. I wasn’t aware of these things. And when we found out, he was charged within a matter of days.
(Question off mic).
GOVERNOR HOGAN: No. I was part of the investigation. Again, 27 counts of fraud.
Anybody else?
All right. Thank you all very much.