GOP, Ysursa ask for court review of redistricting

BOISE — Secretary of State Ben Ysursa has asked the Idaho Supreme Court to intervene after the state’s six-member redistricting panel failed to agree on new election maps by Tuesday’s deadline. Republican redistricting commission members today also filed a request for review. The petitions are likely to result in the commissioners being called back to Boise to finish their work. Redistricters must reset Idaho’s 35 legislative districts and two congressional districts every 10 years, to reflect population changes and preserve the “one-person, one-person” vote principle. Among other thing justices are being asked to clarify: If the commissioners drawing the boundaries should avoid splitting up counties at all costs, as Democrats contend, or whether a 2009 law that seeks to avoid unwieldy districts should also be taken into account, as Republicans favor.