New Mexico First Redistricting Taskforce Develops 18 Recommendations to Strengthen Redistricting

New Mexico First launched a statewide task force to develop recommendations about political redistricting in October 2020. Retired Chief New Mexico Supreme Court Justice Edward Chavez and retired Chief New Mexico Court of Appeals Judge Roderick Kennedy were selected as the taskforce’s co-chairs. This 25 person task force arrived at 18 consensus-backed recommendations.  One overarching recommendation was to codify redistricting rules and processes into law rather than advisory guidelines.  Recommendations ranged from requirements to justify any deviations from the one person one vote doctrine and rejection of partisan approaches to redistricting to the establishment of independent bodies to oversee or decide on political maps and acknowledgment of the important role the public has in the mapping process.