Utah redistricting committee reviews five court-ordered congressional map options, sets public comment period

The Redistricting Committee of the Utah Legislature reviewed five proposed congressional maps Tuesday and confirmed that it will accept public comment for 10 days before making a recommendation. Chair Perucci told the meeting the committee is working under a court order and Proposition 4 and “we can absolutely not use things like election results, voting records, party affiliation information, or consideration of incumbents or prospective candidates.”

Why it matters: The committee must follow Proposition 4’s criteria while also complying with Judge Gibson’s timeline. The court order requires that any map the legislature adopts be publicly available for comment for 10 days before the legislature may adopt it, and the committee said it will not take a final vote at this session.

Committee members and staff walked through five options labeled A through E. Committee leaders said each option was prepared to meet Prop 4’s seven statutory criteria and to avoid use of partisan data in map creation. Chair Perucci reiterated the timeline and process constraints: maps that are not publicly available before the start of the 10-day period cannot be adopted under the court order.

Map details presented during the meeting included municipal and county splits the committee sought to minimize. Option A, for example, was described as splitting three municipalities — North Salt Lake, Pleasant Grove and West Valley — and three counties (Davis, Salt Lake and Utah). Option B was listed as splitting North Salt Lake, Provo and West Jordan and the same three counties. Option C similarly split three municipalities (Mill Creek, North Salt Lake and Pleasant Grove) and Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties. Option D split more jurisdictions and was criticized by several members as less compact; the committee recorded that it splits Eagle Mountain, Layton and Taylorsville and increases county splits to include Tooele and Wasatch in addition to Davis, Salt Lake and Utah. Option E split Cottonwood Heights and Provo and listed Salt Lake, Summit, Utah and Wasatch counties as split.

Committee discussion emphasized policy priorities written into Prop 4 — minimizing municipal and county splits, preserving communities of interest (including tribal lands, higher education campuses and military installations), compactness and contiguity — and the practical limits imposed by geography and census blocks. Chair Perucci and co-chair Senator Sandle said the committee had asked staff to filter partisan material from materials presented to members so the drawing process remained party-neutral.

No formal selection or recommendation was made at the meeting. The committee said it would reconvene on the morning of Oct. 6 to review public comments and then recommend a single map to the full legislature; the legislature will hold a special session later that day. Committee staff said maps and analytic materials discussed at the meeting will be posted on the committee web page by the next day for the 10-day public comment period.

Next steps: The committee will accept public comment on any map that was posted to the redistricting website by the stated public deadline; after that 10-day comment period the committee will vote on a map to recommend to the Legislature on Oct. 6. Chair Perucci said the committee intends to follow the court’s schedule while preserving legislative options to appeal the court’s order in higher courts if appropriate.