Supermajority of Americans Want Supreme Court to Limit Partisan Gerrymandering

Date
Issues

Bipartisan poll shows overwhelming support from Republicans, Independents and Democrats

In the first-ever bipartisan survey on partisan gerrymandering and the Supreme Court, an overwhelming majority (71 to 15 percent) of Americans want the Supreme Court to place limits on lawmakers’ ability to manipulate voting maps. This includes 80 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of Independents and 65 percent of Republicans. 

“Americans trust the Supreme Court to rein in partisan gerrymandering and want the Court to act,” said Celinda Lake, President of Lake Research Partners. “Voters are deeply concerned about politicians manipulating voting maps to serve their own political advantage and are looking for a solution.”    

The poll shows that:

  • By a margin of 62 to 10 percent, voters are less likely to support a candidate who supports partisan gerrymandering.
  • ​By a margin of 73 to 14 percent, voters support removing partisan bias from redistricting, even if it means their preferred political party will win fewer seats.    

“Freely choosing their representatives is an issue of deep principle for voters of all political stripes,” said Republican pollster Ashlee Rich Stephenson of WPA Intelligence. Our poll shows that a Supreme Court decision limiting extreme partisan redistricting will be very well-received by the American electorate.”   

The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing the landmark partisan gerrymandering case Gill v. Whitford, argued by the Campaign Legal Center (CLC) and co-counsel, on October 3. For the first time in 31 years, a lower court – after a four-day trial – struck down Wisconsin’s 2011 state assembly redistricting plan as an unconstitutional gerrymander.

“This poll underscores the notion that voters overwhelmingly expect free and fair election for choosing their representatives,” said Paul Smith, vice president of litigation and strategy at the Campaign Legal Center who will argue the case before the Supreme Court. “The Supreme Court can be confident that in reining in extreme partisan gerrymandering, it’s doing what’s required by the Constitution and acting in accordance with the vast majority of the American people.”

This national survey of 1,000 likely 2018 general election voters was conducted on behalf of the Campaign Legal Center from August 26 to 31.

Learn more about CLC’s efforts on behalf of the 12 plaintiffs in Whitford here.

Learn more about the redistricting process, how it works, and the everyday impacts of partisan gerrymandering on our democracy here.

Private counsel working with CLC in representing the appellees includes Douglas M. Poland of Rathje & Woodward, Peter G. Earle, Michele L. Odorizzi of Mayer Brown, Nicholas O. Stephanopoulos of the University of Chicago Law School and Jessica R. Amunson of Jenner & Block.

*Webcast of partisan gerrymandering rollout event at National Press Club is available upon request.