Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the mission of CCFD?
Our mission is to end partisan redistricting (“gerrymandering”) and to promote fairly drawn electoral districts through research and development of rigorously applied neutral design criteria that legislatures and courts understand and can enforce.
How does CCFD carry out its mission to end partisan gerrymandering?
Founded in 2017, CCFD has developed a neutral method of redistricting, based on rigorous design standards, that restrains partisan gerrymandering. We submitted our methodology to the PA Supreme Court in two amicus briefs in support of the 2018 League of Women Voters v PA lawsuit. The remedial congressional map ultimately adopted by the Court reflects both our methodology and our boundary suggestions for hard-to-draw areas of the map. Our entrants to state-wide Committee of Seventy/Draw the Lines design competitions applying our methodology received honorable mentions and top awards in 2018, 2019, and 2020 for submission of 18-seat Congressional maps, 50-seat state senate and 203-seat state house maps for PA.
What education does CCFD provide?

CCFD has shared its technology and methods with the courts, attorneys working on redistricting cases, pro-democracy groups, academic experts and anyone involved in gerrymandering reform. We have met with lawmakers and members of their staff regarding legislative solutions to end gerrymandering. We have participated in public panels and forums, and have provided testimony in legislative settings -- particularly the PA Legislative Reapportionment Commission (LRC) for state legislative redistricting, and the PA House and Senate State Government Committees for congressional redistricting. CCFD has further provided testimony to the Governor’s listening tours and redistricting hearings.

In addition, CCFD has and will continue to submit amicus briefs on techniques to draw fair maps free of gerrymandering to the PA Supreme Court and to other courts as redistricting complaints work their way through the judicial system.

What is CCFD’s comprehensive approach to end gerrymandering?

CCFD believes partisan gerrymandering can be prevented, or at least greatly restrained, by:

  1. Relying on independent commissions to create legislative districts;
  1. Applying rigorous design standards (see the CCFD 5-step methodology), particularly with regard to maximizing compactness and minimizing unnecessary splitting political subdivisions;
  1.  Requiring transparent and open processes at all stages of district map construction. Included in this requirement: (i) Forbid private communications between drafters and consultants or legislators and constituents; (ii) Provide freely-accessible redistricting software programs, and how to use them: (iii)  Supply free and universally accessible data (except individual voting data); and (iv) Require drafters to release all proposed district boundaries and to provide transparently full explanations for the designs;
  1.  Ensuring open access to the courts as neutral and last-resort arbiters of fair districts, with the judicial power to draft maps if deemed necessary.
What is unique about CCFD?
CCFD offers a comprehensive 5-step neutral redistricting process, plus an 11-point set of conditions for neutral redistricting and public participation -- that any redistricting entity can easily apply (whether an independent commission or a political body) to any electoral district (congressional or state) and that the courts can understand and enforce.
How is CCFD different from Fair Districts PA (FDPA)?
Working in the public interest, CCFD is a research non-profit and an educational group that performs original research on redistricting to devise ways to end gerrymandering. CCFD supports the work of FDPA and other redistricting reform groups in PA and other states. Our members consist of lawyers, engineers, geographers, GIS experts, economists and activists who are passionately engaged in this work. We interact and freely share ideas with FDPA, as well as a number of other good government groups (including the Princeton Gerrymandering Project and the Committee of Seventy’s Citizen Map Corps). Our teams of experts (both in data/tech and legal) provide analytics, mapping expertise, legislative language and other support work to devise solutions to end partisan gerrymandering.

Help Fund CCFD's Fight To End Gerrymandering In Pennsylvania

Please give what you can - every dollar helps and no donation is too small.  Your support and contributions will directly fund our ongoing work to end gerrymandering.

CCFD is a Pennsylvania 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Association under 15 Pa.C.S.A. Section 9111. All donations are tax-deductible.

OR
Write a check made payable to Concerned Citizens for Democracy and mail it to CCFD, 168 Idris Road, Merion Station, PA 19066-1611.

Thank you for supporting our work! Thank you for supporting democracy!

    INTERESTED IN HELPING OUT?  If you have the following interests and skills, you can help us make a difference:

    • With mapping or GIS skills, you can be a part of the Tech/Science Team and help analyze or challenge maps using the CCFD methodology.

    • With legal or paralegal skills, you can be a part of the Legal Team and help craft amicus briefs explaining the methodology to litigants and courts.

    • With writing, fundraising, or communications skills, you can be a part of the Media / Communications / Fundraising Teams.

    If you have questions or want more information about volunteer opportunities, please

     Contact Us