OLYMPIA — Washington’s new legislative and congressional district maps are finished.
On Tuesday, the state Senate approved a measure making roughly 75 small adjustments to lines drawn by the state Redistricting Commission. It passed on a 35-14 vote.
With the House having passed the same measure last week, the once-a-decade process is completed.
The final maps will be in use for the upcoming legislative and congressional races, barring legal challenges, and for the decade beyond. They can be found on the commission website, www.redistricting.wa.gov.
A pair of lawsuits in Thurston County Superior Court are pushing to get the maps invalidated. They contend commissioners violated state open meeting laws when they negotiated secretly ahead of a Nov. 15 deadline, then voted on new boundaries that were never made public. Those votes need to be voided and thus the maps invalidated, according to the suits.
Another legal battle is brewing in federal court.
Voting and civil rights groups filed a lawsuit last month in U.S. District Court in Seattle arguing the redistricting plan for legislative districts violates the federal Voting Rights Act. The groups want the federal court to make the state redo the plan to include a majority-Latino state legislative district in the Yakima Valley region that does not dilute the voting strength of Latino voters.
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