Voice

Please keep confidential, share with close and trusted contacts!! If any version of the Democrat maps is adopted, Gallatin will lose many of our Republican legislators who advocate for us in Helena. Anyone from MT can comment even if you don’t live in the districts in question as this affects you too!!!

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When crafting your statement, start with LEGAL basis and the rest is optional:
Legal Objection. Poke Fun. Ask Rhetorical Questions. Object on Legal Grounds Again.***
***As you read below, don’t use all talking points and don’t use exactly in the same way, rephrase to make it your own but still get the same points across.

LEGAL OBJECTION – focus on hard hitting legal focused testimony. Please make sure to read the state law MCA 5-1-115 Its fairly short and easy to read.
1. The law states to avoid dividing political subdivisions. Maps 1 and 4 show that you can avoid dividing political subdivisions to a great extent. Maps 2 and 3 divide Bozeman and Missoula up much more than necessary.
– political subdivision is “any division of any local governmental unit.”
2. Compact. This law was created to avoid wagon wheel and spoke type districts. Maps 1 and 4 are very compact districts and adhere to law requirements. Maps 2 and 3 have elongated districts that do not adhere to state law. They are longer than three times the average width.
3. Contiguous. Focus on geographical boundaries such as that lowest district that takes in Big Sky and Red Lodge and Cooke City. At least 3 mountain ranges, must leave the state to travel from one end to another, or Drive 6 hours through Montana, equivalent to driving to Spokane Washington.
4. Areas of interest. By drawing districts to carve up rural areas and outnumber rural voters and rural communities by city center populations is not fair to areas of interest. Gallatin Gateway doesn’t have anything in common with College. Different communities attend different schools, etc. Maps 2 and 3 disenfranchise rural voters and smaller communities. The University area should be its own district.
5. Keep political subdivisions intact. State law says that maps should not favor one party over another. This needs to be taken into consideration at the county level because if you target one county to give one particular party more seats, it is gerrymandering. It is not fair to Gallatin to take a roughly 50/50 District and give Democrats 80% of the legislative House seats.

SUMMARY OF LAWS BROKEN by #2 & 3:
– The districts must be as equal as practicable. FAIL
– Keep political subdivisions intact. EPIC FAIL
– The number of cities divided among more than one district must be as small as possible. FAIL
– District boundaries must coincide with the boundaries of political subdivisions of the state to the greatest extent possible. EPIC FAIL
– The districts must be contiguous, meaning that the district must be in one piece. EPIC FAIL