Gov. Phil Scott has signed into law the Legislature’s redrawn district maps, solidifying the political playing field in Vermont for the next 10 years.
Scott signed H.722 on Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from his office. The maps can now go to the Secretary of State’s Office to begin the ballot-making process.
Redistricting is completed once per decade, but this year lawmakers had a tighter-than-ever timeline to redraw Vermont’s maps and allocate 30 senators and 150 representatives across 643,077 constituents. The process began later than usual because of the U.S. Census Bureau’s nationwide delays, and Secretary of State Jim Condos urged lawmakers to wrap quickly to allow time to print mail-in ballots.
Redistricting uses census data to ensure Vermont is following the U.S. Supreme Court’s one-person, one-vote standard.
The maps also portray the realities of Vermont’s migrating population — and the resulting shift in political power. Most notably, the Northeast Kingdom (Essex, Caledonia and Orleans counties) lost one senator to Chittenden County, mirroring population shifts from rural areas to the metropolitan center. Three senators will now represent the Kingdom, and seven will represent Chittenden.
This year’s process also revitalized lawmakers’ longstanding debate over whether to transition to single-member districts, as opposed to Vermont’s current multimember model, in both the House and Senate. Despite much noise from those who say single-member districts would be fairest, legislators ultimately stuck with their existing model.
Scott did not offer additional comments on H.722 upon signing Wednesday. When the Senate passed the bill in March, his spokesperson Jason Maulucci said “there are always winners and losers” every reapportionment cycle. But he added that Scott is particularly concerned about rural Vermonters losing representation in Montpelier.
“We see the consequences of the our (sic) demographic challenges in numerous ways, and the further redistribution of representation from rural areas to more economically well-off parts of the state are another example,” Maulucci wrote March 25.