Aug. 26 (UPI) -- A Utah judge said the state must redraw its congressional districts because the state's Republicans overruled a ballot measure passed by voters to outlaw gerrymandering.
Judge Dianna Gibson ruled on Monday the state can't use maps that reshaped Salt Lake City, a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise red state. It must draw new lines using an independent commission in compliance with a 2018 ballot measure approved by Utah voters.
Depending on how the maps are drawn, it could mean one district in Utah could go to a Democrat. Before Utah Republicans overruled the state's independent commission and drew partisan maps in 2021, former Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams won a Salt Lake City-area district in 2018.
Under the 2018 ballot measure, the legislature had to either approve or disapprove those maps, and there were guardrails for how to draw new districts. One of those was a ban on partisan gerrymandering.
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