Public invited to weigh in on legislative map drawing at public hearing

File photo, state senator Scott Sandall

LOGAN — Every 10 years with the U.S. Census, the Utah legislature is tasked with taking a look at Census data and, if needed, redrawing congressional, legislative and even state school board district boundaries. That committee has begun it’s work. On KVNU’s For the People program on Thursday, State Senator Scott Sandall said it’s hard to please everybody in this process.

“I’ve often said in this process there’s only one person that’s happy with a map that is drawn, and that is one who draws it. Everybody else is going to not be happy with that map,” he explained.

But yet, Sandall said, they have to come up with the best map they can.

“The census data is essential. It’s what drives all of our decision in making the maps. That was very slow coming this year because of COVID. This census data is the snapshot of how many people lived in a certain area on April 1st, 2020.

He said, normally, they would receive the data in April and have all summer to look through it and start to build maps and go out and visit with people. But the data only arrived on August 16th.

But Sandall said they’re grateful to announce that they have now launched the map-drawing tool on their website, with great tutorial instructions.

So people can go there and can start drawing their own maps and the committee anticipates public participation. The website is Redistricting.utah.gov.

The Legislative Redistricting Committee will hold public hearings across the state before recommending new district boundaries to the Legislature.

Public hearings provide Utahns the opportunity to participate in the redistricting process by offering recommendations and suggestions before new boundaries are drawn.

Locally, the hearing will be held Thursday, September 9th at 7:00 p.m. at Mount Logan Middle School in Logan.

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