Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Holder: No on Missouri Amendment 3 to empower voters

The way electoral lines are drawn is one of the most important and underrated issues in politics. Every 10 years, following the census, states establish new boundaries for their districts that will last for the next decade. Redistricting is intended to account for changing populations and ensure fair representation — but too often, a state’s politicians seize control of the process, drawing themselves into safe districts, consolidating their power and preventing their constituents from making meaningful reforms.

In 2018, Missourians voted on the Clean Missouri ballot initiative to change this practice and make the state’s districts fairer. Among other measures, the reform established a nonpartisan demographer to draw district lines during the once-in-a-decade redistricting process in 2021 — removing politics from the equation, and ensuring more competitive elections that would force representatives to be accountable to their constituents. The draft maps are then reviewed by bipartisan commissions, which can make changes to the plans, so long as clear criteria are followed to ensure that the final plan is fair, keeps communities together and protects voters.

Missouri’s voters overwhelmingly supported the proposal, and the measure passed with 62% of the vote. Yet almost immediately afterward, politicians in the state legislature began trying to overturn the will of the people — and this November, the new Amendment 3 ballot measure will attempt to do just that.

Amendment 3 is written to sound like good-government reform, but what it’s actually designed to do is put lobbyists and special interests back in charge, protect politicians from accountability and limit Missouri voters’ ability to choose their leaders. It starts by cutting out the nonpartisan demographer from the process, and would instead let lobbyists and political operatives have a greater say in how the maps are drawn. It limits Missourians’ rights by preventing them from challenging unfair districts. And it creates an intentionally secretive procedure for drawing and finalizing maps in order to prevent the public from seeing the data used to create the maps.

The proposal wouldn’t just roll back the fair elections measures Missourians voted for; it would go further by changing the way populations are counted in the first place. An analysis of this proposal conducted by the Schwarzenegger Institute at the University of Southern California found that Amendment 3’s citizen voting age population count — that is, counting only those of voting age when drawing districts — the proposal would hurt areas such as the suburbs of St. Louis and Kansas City, but also places like Joplin and Springfield that have a higher concentration of families with children. It would allow representatives to ignore their responsibilities on issues such as education and family services. And it would shield them from accountability at a time when parents are struggling to keep their children safe from a pandemic.

Fair redistricting and representation may sound like obscure issues, but they have real implications for everyone who lives in our towns and communities. Unfair, gerrymandered districts encourage politicians to cater to the extremes of their parties, keeping unrepresentative politicians secure in safe seats. They give more power to special interests and less to American voters, ensuring that those with money and influence can buy access while everyday constituents get left out and left behind. They allow lobbyists and special interests to write laws on issues such as health care and taxes by cutting voters out of the process. Ultimately, the way we draw districts determines whose voices will be heard, whose needs will be met and whose interests will be served over the next 10 years.

This fight isn’t about Democrats and Republicans. The two of us have spent our lives in opposing parties, but we both know that fairly-drawn districts lead to better government by letting voters choose their public servants instead of letting politicians choose their voters. We both understand that drawing more representative districts leads to more representative democracy by making public servants more likely to seek commonsense solutions. And we have both seen how political gerrymandering makes us unable to stand up to the people who are elected to serve us, shielding our politicians from meaningful consequences and gutting our ability to make a meaningful impact.

All Americans deserve an election system that makes every vote count, and Missourians deserve a legislature that respects their wishes and serves their interests. Amendment 3 is a cynical ploy by politicians to decimate the reforms that Missourians overwhelmingly supported, to ensure the job security of politicians and to put the goals of lobbyists and special interests ahead of American families. The most fundamental part of any elected leader’s job is to listen to the people. But Amendment 3 is proof that the politicians just won’t listen. They are rejecting the overwhelming will of the voters to protect their selfish interests.

Two years ago, Missourians demanded reform in a landslide. This November, they can force their politicians to listen by voting no on Amendment 3.

Eric H. Holder Jr., a Democrat, served as the 82nd attorney general of the United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is the 38th governor of California.

This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Arnold Schwarzenegger, Eric Holder: No on Missouri Amendment 3 to empower voters."