Episode 32767: Open Democracy Minute for December 20, 2021: Gerrymandered Congressional districts come up for vote Jan. 6 or 7 in NH House

You're listening to the Open Democracy Minute, keeping Granite State government by and for the people.     While we await the return of the U.S. Senate to Washington for further action on the filibuster rules and the Freedom to Vote Act, back here in New Hampshire, the gerrymandered Congressional and House voting district map proposals come up for a full NH House vote on January 6 or 7.   An almost unanimous torrent of letters to the editor, op-eds, and editorials have called for fair maps and for the gerrymandered proposals to be thrown out.   And votes earlier this year in 74 NH towns and cities representing 561,000 Granite Staters, have asked for a fair, nonpartisan and transparent mapping process.  They didn’t get it.   The Congressional maps are the most radical change in 140 years, shifting 75 towns and 365,000 people from one district to another, gerrymandering District 2 to pack it with Democratic towns, leaving District 1 to be a Republican stronghold.    House maps were also manipulated to a lesser degree, combining towns to dilute areas which leaned Democrat in past elections, and for 56 towns with 3,444 population or more, ignoring the NH Constitution guaranteeing dedicated House districts. The phone numbers and emails of your NH House representatives can be found at gencourt.state.nh.us  As Granny D said, “Democracy is not something we HAVE, it's something we DO.”  For the Open Democracy Minute, I'm Brian Beihl.