A Prince George’s judge on Monday ordered the county council to throw out the widely criticized redistricting map it approved this fall and instead implement one proposed by a nonpartisan committee — a decision the council said it would appeal “immediately.”
Circuit court judge William Snoddy declared the map, which drew three liberal politicians out of the districts in which they were running or considering running, invalid because of a procedural error made by the council. More than 150 residents had testified against the map in November, with many calling it an obvious example of political gerrymandering, before it was approved by a council majority as part of the decennial redistricting process.
A group of residents last week filed a lawsuit in which their lawyer argued that the map was improperly passed via a resolution, which does not require a signature from the county executive, rather than a bill, which does.
Click here to read the rest of the article written by Rachel Chason over at The Washington Post
