SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Republican-controlled Utah House approved new Congressional cards Tuesday that put aside the work of a voter-approved independent redistribution commission in favor of boundaries that further divide democratic Salt Lake County.
The cards were passed by 50-22 votes against opposition from minority Democrats, who called on lawmakers to support the redistribution of the cards produced by the commission. “This is taking away the city’s electorate, and it doesn’t have to be,” said Rep. Jennifer Dailey-Provost, a Salt Lake City Democrat.
However, Republican MP Paul Ray, who helped draw the newly approved maps, said they better reflect the state as a whole by involving a mix of urban and rural voters. “Population data determine our actions,” he said.
The draft law now goes to the state senate.
The new districts will determine how voters elect members of Congress for the next decade. While much of Utah is conservative, one of its four congressional districts was a swing district. The new maps will likely make the 4th District more reliably Republican by dividing the liberal Salt Lake County into four districts instead of the three it is now divided into.
Some Republicans also voted against the new plan, including Rep. Ray Ward: “There have to be places where people know it could go either way,” he said.
The vote comes a day after dozens of frustrated people held a hearing to ask lawmakers to use one of the cards created by the Utah Independent Redistricting Commission. It was created after a slim majority of voters approved a voting initiative in 2018, but lawmakers were not required to use any of the cards they designed.
House leaders said they took some of the commission’s findings into account when creating the new maps, but said the state constitution gives them the power to draw new legislative districts.
“Elected officials in the Legislature really take seriously their responsibility to do what they see fit,” said Brad Wilson, spokesman for the US House of Representatives.
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