What’s Wrong with SB1011?

S.B. 1011 amended Prop 4’s broad standard defining how its prohibition on undue partisan favoritism should be assessed. Rather than maintain the People’s choice to assess maps using “judicial standards and the best available data and scientific methods, including measures of partisan symmetry,” Utah Code § 20A-19-103(5), S.B. 1011 redefined Prop 4’s partisan gerrymandering prohibition to make one specific measure of partisan symmetry—the partisan bias test—a mandatory, determinative test to the exclusion of other relevant metrics. It layered on additional metrics (a companion metric called the mean-median difference test and a computer-simulated mapping ensemble with additional metrics), but the partisan bias test remains the primary, gateway metric to filter maps that “pass” or “fail.”  Read about our Findings of Fact. You may also read the Legislature’s opinion here.