The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors does its own redistricting, and one can tell that, for the most part, they pick their own voters.
See if you can see a pattern here.
The main MCBOS redistricting webpage is here.
First, some basic demographics -
The Board has five members.
The membership is 100% male.
The membership is 80% non-Hispanic Caucasian.
The membership is 80% Republican.
The membership is NOT representative of the county as a whole. Not even close.
From the U.S. Census Bureau -
Voter registration figures, courtesy the Maricopa County Recorder's Office -
While 80% of the board is Republican, Republicans only make up 53% of the voters who
have registered in one of the two major parties.
Of course, only 34.3% of all registered voters in Maricopa County are enrolled Republicans.
While partisan affiliation is (allegedly) not a consideration during the supes' redistricting process, other factors may be.
I wonder what those factors could be? (That's sarcasm - I don't actually wonder at all.)
The supes' are considering five plans. Even the least bad of those plans involve packing most ethnic minority voters into a single district.
The demographic figures of those plans -
I'm torn between wanting to keep them around and doing what they do to serve as a warning to those who believe that elected officials should be allowed to do their own redistricting and having the voters impose an AIRC-like process at the county level.
Then I remember that the county has a $3.42 *billion* budget.
They should be compelled by the voters to be more representative of Maricopa County.
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