The board of supervisors approved a resolution calling on Pennsylvania officials to impanel an independent bipartisan commission to draw a new statewide legislative and Congressional map.

 

Newtown Supervisors approved the resolution at the urging of the non-partisan group Fair Districts of Pennsylvania, which is spearheading the change in the Commonwealth.

 

During the April 25 board meeting, Mary Kremser, the resolution coordinator of the organization’s Bucks County chapter, had implored the Newtown supervisors to urge the state legislature to appoint an independent 11-member panel to redraw the legislative maps, instead of having it done by the lawmakers or their political appointees.

 

“The more resolutions we have, the more pressure we can put on the legislature,” Kremser had told the supervisors at last month’s meeting.

 

“Seven other states have already set up similar panels, including California, and they were successful,” she had noted.

 

Under the group’s plan, the Commonwealth Secretary, who oversees elections in Pennsylvania, would formulate the 11-member bipartisan redistricting commission.

 

It would be comprised of four Democrats, four Republicans and three Independents.

 

To be eligible for appointment, its members could not have held elected office for at least five years, and they would also be barred from running for any political position for another five years after they serve on the special commission.

 

The same restrictions would apply family members and lobbyists.

 

According to Kremser, even though Democrats have 700,000 more registered voters in Pennsylvania than Republicans, currently 13 of the state’s 18 members of Congress are Republicans because of redistricting based on the 2010 U.S. Census.

 

“It’s not going to be a perfect system, it’s going to be tough,” she noted before the supervisors’ vote on the resolution, “But it’s going to be a lot more fair than what we had.”