Michael Barone’s editorial “Redistricting proved to be much ado about not much,” justifies cheating because it isn’t working. Barone’s flippant disregard for fair voting districts proves how little he respects our system. Barone incorrectly reasons that political demographics shift anyway, so why should we take this cheating seriously. He is either willfully insincere or unaware of the reasons presidential voting blocks shifted drastically between 2012 and 2020.

Barone justifies gerrymandering by saying “…there is no truly nonpartisan way to draw district lines.” That might be true, but there certainly is a way to truly draw partisan lines, and that is what disenfranchised voters object to.

Does Barone genuinely believe that “…redistricters who drew the boundaries in 2011 and 2012 didn’t and couldn’t foresee” changes in public opinion? His example of districts with a majority of college graduates voting for Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah in 2012, then voting Democratic in 2020 — leaves out the pertinent information that no matter what their party affiliation, college graduates voted against Trump in 2020. That’s no big mystery, but what Barone purposefully muddies is that gerrymandering impacts down ballot races.

It’s interesting that a Utah newspaper chooses to run a nationally syndicated story about gerrymandering pointing out all the flaws in Democratic states — particularly California — yet never mentions Utah’s Prop 4 that was passed by citizens yet ignored by the legislature.

As Barone waves off cheating as, “Partisan redistricting is not a threat to democracy; it’s just a marginal and unavoidable factor in a system that links representation to population,” the fact that now more than ever, congressional maps predict which party will control the House of Representatives is a threat to democracy. I would like my vote to actually count.

Kathy Adams

Salt Lake City

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