Utah redistricting battle: Small city split into four congressional districts

MILLCREEK, Utah (NewsNation) — A Utah metropolis of 65,000 residents has go crushed zero successful the state's yearslong conflict implicit partisan redistricting, with each 4 of the state's legislature districts carved into the tiny suburban assemblage southeast of Salt Lake City.

Millcreek's antithetic part illustrates Utah's ongoing struggle to instrumentality voter-approved nonpartisan redistricting maps.

In 2018, Utah voters approved a ballot measurement demanding nonpartisan legislature maps, but years later, those voter-mandated boundaries stay unimplemented.

The city's part means residents tin transverse antithetic legislature districts simply by visiting adjacent businesses.

Voters approved nonpartisan maps successful 2018, inactive not implemented

A drive-in edifice sits successful Utah's 4th Congressional District, portion a 7-Eleven crossed the thoroughfare falls successful the 3rd District. A Starbucks connected 1 country occupies the 2nd District, and traveling a mile and a fractional eastbound leads to the 1st District.

"It comes down to however you're represented," said Elizabeth Rasmussen, enforcement manager of Better Boundaries, a radical advocating for redistricting reform. "If the boundaries are drawn successful specified a mode that your dependable can't beryllium heard, that's a problem."

The Republican-controlled legislature drew maps that dispersed Democratic voters crossed aggregate districts, a signifier critics telephone gerrymandering.

Critics accidental gerrymandering dilutes Democratic elector representation

A'Lissa Olson, a Millcreek elector and subordinate of Mormon Women for Ethical Government, called it "a blatant effort to effort to diminish the ballot of our community."

However, Millcreek Mayor Jeff Silvestrini sees an vantage successful the antithetic arrangement, noting that having 4 legislature representatives gives the metropolis much opportunities to lobby for national grants and unafraid letters of proposal for backing applications.

Millcreek residents person taken to societal media to item their redistricting predicament, creating Instagram videos documenting journeys done each 4 legislature districts wrong metropolis limits.

The authorities legislature faces a Nov. 10 deadline to nutrient maps complying with the voter-approved law.