FAIR MAPS CRITICAL TO THE LIFE OF OUR DEMOCRACY
I will do my best to stand above the partisan fray. I will also not pretend to be more of an expert in the details of maps constructed by people who have spent many hours absorbed with the details of geography and population statistics. But I do want to stress the importance of your task at this point in the history of our nation. I hope you as well in your final decisions stand above the partisan bickering and focus instead on the fundamental principles of our democracy, especially the principle of the equal enfranchisement of every voter in our nation. Our democracy is under attack and many citizens have begun to lose faith in the very idea of democracy existing in our country. If your work ends up supporting the rampant disillusionment with the mechanics of our democratic voting systems, you will have contributed to the demise of American democracy at a time when it most of all needs defending. So I will repeat the often repeated cliche which however speaks a fundamental truth. In a well-functioning democracy, the voters chose their leaders; the leaders do not choose their voters. Sadly, there has been a trend over many years for political parties to attempt to influence the structural systems of voting so their candidates obtain an unfair advantage. This trend must be reversed now, especially in the extremely divisive political atmosphere of today. An attack on our nation’s Capitol occurred a little over a year ago based on the reluctance of the party in power to concede defeat after a presidential election. This refusal to support a peaceful transfer of power led to a violent attack on Congress on the very day this peaceful transfer of power was to be constitutionally effected. The perpetuation of distrust in the 2020 presidential election results has led to a series of restrictive voting measures that are undermining the faith in our electoral systems. If you fail to draw fair electoral maps, you will be continuing the sentiment of distrust in our democracy that could soon lead to a possible violent breakdown of our entire political system. So I beg you to be diligent in the final review of your work. You must be absolutely certain that your work does not give any unfair advantage to any political party. But if there is a tiebreaker, my recommendation is that the slight advantage should go to the political party which has been treated unfairly the last ten years. The most important objective however is to strive to give no unfair advantage to any political party. In this way, the people's confidence in our voting system can begin to be restored and the fundamental principle of our democracy; namely, that every voter’s vote will count equally, will be reflected in our voting systems. Your success in drawing fair maps will begin the critical process of restoring faith in our precious democracy. I hope, for the sake of the continuation of our democracy, you modify your final work product according to the principles of fairness and equality outlined above. Thank you for