The several gerrymandered congressional redistricting plans now being considered by the General Assembly are self-serving and cynical. The heavy-handed manipulation of Maryland's voters is an crass perversion of how districts should be drawn, and it points up the corruptive danger of long-term one-party rule.
Supreme Court rulings and federal laws require that congressional districts must be contiguous, compact, and equally populated. Please explain how any of the proposed districts meets the definition for being compact.
The proposed plans sacrifice citizens' representation for the interests of the Maryland Democratic Party. Instead of holding together local communities, the proposed districts are designed to stamp out one of only two Republican districts by cynically manipulating minority representation.
Maryland Democrats may have the power to ram through self-serving re-redistricting, but they will further corrode the political process and alienate the citizens of this state.
Please do not put party above the interests of the voters.
Melvin Barnhart, Randallstown