JUNEAU (AP) — The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is suing the Alaska Redistricting Board over recently drawn legislative boundaries that it says dilutes the votes of borough residents.
The lawsuit was filed Dec. 2, said Stacey Stone, borough attorney. It is the first lawsuit filed against the new boundaries for state House and Senate seats.
The redistricting board adopted its maps Nov. 10, triggering a 30-day period in which challenges could be filed. The board was charged with rewriting Alaska’s political boundaries following the 2020 census.
Unless delayed by litigation, the new districts will take effect for the 2022 legislative elections.
The borough believes it is entitled to almost six House seats either fully or almost wholly populated with Matanuska-Borough residents. The state House has 40 members.
The borough’s lawsuit cites concerns with the degree to which the redistricting board’s maps exceed the per-district target population for House seats in the region, essentially penalizing the borough, and says two shared districts, with Valdez and parts of the Denali Borough, ignore “logical, municipal, and natural boundaries.”
A redistricting plan proposed by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough included four full House and two lesser-shared House districts. It did not propose any pairing with Valdez, and borough officials, along with Valdez, had argued against such a pairing.
The board’s final plan “raises an inference of intentional discrimination, by unnecessarily dividing the Matanuska-Susitna Borough (MSB) in ways which dilute the effective strength of MSB voters,” the lawsuit states.
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