Op-Ed: Seattle Must Keep Promise to Create First-Ever People-Centered Voting Districts
This month, Americans will decide the future of our politics in the November 8 midterms. But another important deadline lands that day, too: the day the Seattle Redistricting Commission submits its newly redrawn map of the city’s seven voting districts, a decision that will shape Seattle politics for the next decade.
This is the first-ever opportunity for Seattleites to create an equitable and community-informed electoral system for people of color, renters, low-income people, youth, and other marginalized groups in Seattle.
In 2013, Seattleites passed a ballot measure to establish seven council districts, creating an opportunity for a majority-BIPOC district where communities of color could elect a candidate of their choice. However, when it came time to draw those seven districts, Faye Garneau’s group, which pushed the measure, drew the boundaries behind closed doors. Garneau basically claimed she didn't see race, and so, inevitably, she oversaw the drawing of districts that split Yesler Terrace, Fremont, and other marginalized communities…
