Fight Gerrymandering:
Reform Advocacy Groups
Fight Gerrymandering:Reform Advocacy Groups
Organizations Working on This Issue
There are a variety of organizations that track gerrymandering in the states, help organize citizen reform movements, or mount Legal challenges against gerrymandering. Listed below are several major national organizations or institutions that analyze the problem of gerrymandering or advocate for reform. The staffs and websites of these organizations provide a wealth of information and analysis about redistricting.
All About Redistricting (Website)
Loyola Law School
919 Albany St. Los Angeles CA
(213) 736-1000
redistricting.lls.edu
Justin Levitt, Law Professor and Website Founder/Writer, levittj@lls.edu
Through his website, Levitt tracks the process of state and federal redistricting around the country, including litigation. He is a nationally recognized expert in constitutional law and the law of democracy, with a particular focus on election administration and redistricting. He was honored to receive Loyola’s Excellence in Teaching Award for 2013-14. Levitt has been invited to testify before committees of the U.S. Senate, the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, several state legislative bodies, and both federal and state courts.
Brennan Center for Justice
New York University
161 Avenue of the Americas, 12th floor
New York, New York 10013
(626) 292-8310
brennancenter.org
Washington DC Office
1140 Connecticut Ave., NW
11th Floor, Suite 1150
Washington, D.C. 20036
President: Michael Waldman
Director and Counsel (D.C. Office): Nicole Austin-Hiller
The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law is a nonpartisan law and policy institute that seeks to improve our systems of democracy and justice. The Center works to hold our political institutions and laws accountable to the twin American ideals of democracy and equal justice for all.
Campaign Legal Center
1411 K St. NW, Suite 1400
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 736-2200
campaignlegalcenter.org
President and General Counsel: Trevor Potter
Executive Director and Director of Litigation: J. Gerald Hebert
The Campaign Legal Center represents the public interest in the courts, before regulatory agencies and legislative bodies. It provides legal advice and analysis to state legislatures on issues of gerrymandering, redistricting reform, voting rights, and the electoral process. It operates from the premise that restrictions on the right to vote, partisan gerrymandering, and elections dominated by wealth, strike at the heart of representative government.
Common Cause
1133 19th Street NW, 9th Floor
Washington, DC 20036
(202) 833-1200
commoncause.org
President: Karen Hobert Flynn
Vice President for State Operations: Jenny Rose Flanagan
National Grassroots Organizer: Isabella Bronstein
National Redistricting Director (Los Angeles Office): Kathy Fend, kfeng@commoncause.org; (213) 623-1216
National Redistricting Coordinator (Los Angeles Office): Dan Vicuna, DVicuna@commoncause.org, (213) 623-1216
Common Cause, which has staff and chapters in 35 states and members in all 50 states, has taken an active role in redistricting reform in multiple states. It has joined with the League of Women Voters and other organizations to mount grassroots citizen reform movements and it has filed lawsuits against partisan gerrymandering in several states. Click on this Common Cause map to see if there is a chapter near you.
Cook Political Report (Online Publication)
The Watergate
600 New Hampshire Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20037
(202) 739-8525
cookpolitical.com
Editor and Publisher, Columnist for National Journal: Charles E. Cook, Jr.
House Editor and Political Analyst: David Wasserman
Founded in 1984, The Cook Political Report is an independent, non-partisan newsletter that analyzes elections and campaigns for the US House of Representatives, US Senate, Governors, and President as well as American political trends.
FairVote
6930 Carroll Avenue, Suite 610
Takoma Park, Maryland 20912
(301) 270-4616
fairvote.org
Executive Director: Rob Richie, RR@FairVote.org
Development Director: Cynthia Terrell, CT@FairVote.org
FairVote seeks to make representative democracy fair, functional, and representative by developing the analysis and educational tools necessary for its reform partners to secure and sustain improvements to American elections. Operating since 1992, FairVote is a non-profit, non-partisan organization with a history of working with scholars, civic leaders, policymakers, and journalists from across the spectrum.
League of Women Voters
1730 M Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington DC 20036-4508
(202) 429-1965
lwv.org
President: Elisabeth MacNamara
Chief Operating Officer: Anisa Tootia
Executive Director: Wylecia Wiggs Harris, wharris@lwv.org
Senior Director, Elections/E-Democracy: Jeanette Senecal, Senior Director, jsenecal@lwv.org
Program Manager, Elections/E-Democracy: Maggie Bush, Program Manager, mbush@lwv.org
Senior Director, Field Support/Membership: Cheryl Graeve, cgraeve@lwv.org
Senior Director, Communications: Kelly Cebalos, kebalos@lwv.org (202) 263-1331
The League of Women Voters is committed to making democracy work for voters through programs of promoting voter registration, working to reduce the influence of large-donor money in political campaigns, and seeking to reform political gerrymandering that favors one party over the other or protects incumbent officeholders. It has combined forces with Common Cause and other organizations in organizing voter referendums and filing lawsuits.
Princeton Election Consortium (Blog)
Neuroscience, A85
Washington Road
Princeton, NJ 08544
(609) 258-0388
election.princeton.edu/
Founder & Associate Professor of Molecular Biology and Neuroscience: Sam Wang
This blog’s mission is to provide informed analysis of US national elections by members of the Princeton academic community. It is open to scholars in the Princeton area from all disciplines, including (but not restricted to) politics, neuroscience, psychology, computer science, and mathematics.
Public Mapping Project (Website)
223 Anderson Hall
P.O. Box 117325
Gainesville, FL 32611
publicmapping.org
Associate Professor University of Florida Department of Political Science (Principal Investigator): Michael P. McDonald, (352)-273-2371, michael.mcdonald@ufl.edu
Director of Research and Head/Scientist, Program on Information Science for the MIT Libraries (Principal Investigator): Dr. Micah Altman, (585)-466-4224, escience@mit.edu, micahaltman.com
The Public Mapping Project is a coalition of people who believe that democracy works best when the public is engaged. It seeks to ensure political equity by making it possible for the public to draw the boundaries of their communities and to generate redistricting plans for their state and localities — through their web-browsers. The Public Mapping Project is developing District Builder, an open-source software redistricting application designed to give the public transparent, accessible, and easy-to-use online mapping tools.
The United States Elections Project (Website)
223 Anderson Hall
P.O. Box 117325
Gainesville, FL 32611
electproject.org
Associate Professor University of Florida Department of Political Science (Principal Investigator): Michael P. McDonald, (352)-273-2371, michael.mcdonald@ufl.edu
The mission of the project is to provide timely and accurate election statistics, electoral laws, research reports, and other useful information regarding the United States electoral system. By providing this information, the project seeks to inform the people of the United States on how their electoral system works, how it may be improved, and how they can participate in it.
Issue Brief Progress Report Success Story Additional Readings
Hedrick Smith, who conceived this website and is its principal writer and architect, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning former New York Times reporter and Emmy award-winning documentary producer for PBS and PBS FRONTLINE. 
