About half a dozen people have applied for a first-of-its kind job in Missouri to draw election maps that are politically fair and competitive.
The “nonpartisan state demographer” position was created by a 2018 voter-approved constitutional amendment to try to diminish the likelihood of partisan gerrymandering when state House and Senate districts are redrawn after the 2020 census.
The application deadline was Wednesday night. Though several states have enacted redistricting reforms in recent years, Missouri is the only state to require a demographer to use a new mathematical formula to try to engineer districts that achieve “partisan fairness” and “competitiveness.”
