The path to drawing lines for the Idaho congressional districts is officially complete after the Idaho Supreme Court upheld the new map in a final petition, Feb. 11.
2021 committee member Tom Dayley said the bipartisan commission’s purpose is to serve all Idahoans.
“All the interests in the state are adequately represented,” Dayley said. “I think that’s why it was done so that you make sure that there’s no bias… The law also prohibits the commission from drawing boundaries that protect incumbent legislators or protect any political party.”
While the commission was originally formed in Summer 2021, it was officially constituted in September. Dayley said once the commission is constituted, they are required by law to complete the best option for congressional lines and submit the map within 45 days.
“The process is that we submit to the Secretary of State and then within 35 days anyone can contest to take it to court,” Dayley said. “It was taken to court into five cases. The Supreme Court just ruled on four of those five cases on the 27th of January and invalidated all the cases and so ratified what the commission did to conduct great congressional district boundaries.”
The fifth petition to change the map was denied Feb. 11. Dayley said that citizens were able to submit their own maps as recommendations throughout the process.
Nate Poppino, communications manager for the Idaho Supreme Court, said the petitions had to be filed within the 35 day period to be eligible for appeal. The law allows any registered voter or any incorporated city or county in Idaho to challenge a redistricting plan.
“Those cases went before the Supreme Court,” Poppino said. ‘Four of the five appeals were filed or consolidated into one case. They all had to do with varying types of challenges to the work that was done on the legislative maps that define the districts for the Idaho House and Senate, and the fifth one of those was heard as its own case.”
There were 42 map plans submitted for the congressional districts by residents and 92 submitted for the legislative boundaries. Dayley said the commission considered these different maps.
“The commission does consider those, and we had a substantial number of maps that were submitted by citizens,” Dayley said. “We also had, in our 70 to 80 meetings, many citizens of Idaho came and testified some on behalf of particular maps. Some just wanted to protect their interests. And we did in fact, consider those things; both the maps as well as the individuals.”
The commission heard concerns from Idaho tribes but were unable to accommodate all their requests.
“We went to three of three of the five reservations and had had comments from the tribes, but under the Constitution, the tribes are not considered in the same status as the counties,” Dayley said. “So, we had to put county boundaries above tribal reservation boundaries in terms of drawing the lines and so when we drew the lines, we gave consideration.”
There are five tribes in Idaho.
“52,648 is the ideal district… when you look at the reservations, there aren’t 50,000 tribal members on any of the reservations, so you must go outside the reservation boundaries to get enough people to be legislatively retested,” Dayley said. “The second thing is the reservation boundaries do not coincide with county boundaries. Some tribes have multiple counties in their reservation. Reservations cover more than what encompasses more than one county.”
Sierra Pesnell can be reached at [email protected]