THEVERMONTCYNIC THE Issue 21 - Volume 136 | February 25, 2020 | vtcynic.com
“A gerrymandered student ward.” Before
Lilly Page lpage@uvm.edu
Five years after the city of Burlington redrew its voting districts, a city councilor who helped make that decision said she’s left with regret. “It felt gross to be a part of it,” said Rachel Siegel, who was city councilor for Ward 3 at the time. “It was one of the worst experiences of my life, but also the most educational.” Siegel was a part of the Redistricting Committee that was made up of four city councilors and nine representatives from different ward neighborhood planning assemblies. The committee met from 2012-13 to decide how to rebalance the wards and their representation. The plan they chose, which was approved in 2014 by Burlington residents, created an entirely new ward of student voters by 2015. That ward is now known as Ward 8. “It’s pretty much a gerrymandered student ward,” said Joan Shannon, who worked on the Burlington Redistricting Committee and was president of city council at the time. Gerrymandering is a redistricting of voting districts to the advantage of one party or disadvantage of a group, according to Webster’s College Dictionary. A rising student population in Ward 1 created an imbalance in power. Residents and city councilors weren’t comfortable with this. The committee had to choose whether to take power away from permanent residents or give more power to a growing student population.
1
After
Redrawing the lines After the results of the 2010 census, it was discovered the wards that made up Burlington at the time had too much of a population imbalance. With UVM’s student population growing, the population in other wards decreasing and the number of people representing all wards going unchanged, city council either had to grow or shrink. “There was a real possibility of a lawsuit,” she said. “We could have been sued by a voter who could claim that they didn’t have equal representation on the council since the numbers were so far out of wack.” James Langan, a citizen on the Redistricting Committee, said the center of the problem was the ward most of UVM once called home. “Ward 1 was the center of it because that’s who was being
Image Source: Burlington.gov
underrepresented as of 2010,” Langan said. The Redistricting Committee reviewed a number of plans, but the one brought to the full city council, and eventually to the voters of Burlington, was a hybrid model. “That’s where the hybrid came in, of having eight representatives from the wards, four representatives from the districts, which got the council size down to 12 city councilors,” Shannon said. Part of the challenges the committee faced were some councilors were not willing to give up what they saw as theirs. “It was more city councilors wanting to include one of the
neighborhoods they had represented to remain in their ward,” said Max Tracy, who has been city councilor for Ward 2 since the redistricting process. Looking back on that vote, Shannon said she still stands by her decision. “I definitely voted no,” she said. “I think we had better options than that.” Sigel said she had to go against her principles. “It was like the implication of voting for what I actually wanted was that we would get something that I wanted even less,” she said. “So I chose the lesser of two evils.”
Consequences
Five years later, as the new divisions have played out, the redistricting changes have become clearer. Candidates running for Ward 8 are faced with having to figure out how to effectively campaign despite UVM policy. UVM says candidates are not allowed to solicit or campaign within residence halls or staff areas. This includes doorto-door canvassing, a popular way of campaigning, according to UVM’s Department of Residential Life website. Adam Roof has been Ward 8 representative since the changes went into effect in 2015. He has had to figure out ways to connect with student voters
that don’t violate UVM policy. “When there’s a problem like that, you work your way around it,” he said. “I’m a big believer in meeting people where they’re at, and if I can’t meet them where they live, you get it anywhere else.” While some who helped make the decision to create Ward 8 regret that move, for Roof, it’s been a positive change. “We have a more acute opportunity for young people and students to have either a seat at the table or have their voices heard,” Roof said. With the 2020 census, the members of city council are hopeful that they can correct what happened in 2015.