On District Boundaries in the Draft Maps for Yuma

The Draft Maps approved by the Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission (IRC) include boundaries for new congressional and legislative districts that disadvantage all voters in the Yuma and Yuma County area – regardless of their political party. Public input is required to convince the IRC to change them.

The IRC is in the process of redrawing all 9 congressional and 30 legislative district boundaries in the state based on the new US census. When finalized, these boundaries will be used for all elections for the next 10 years, so every citizen and community will be impacted by them. The IRC has just released their proposed Draft Maps, including the changes for the City of Yuma and Yuma County. These maps are admittedly imperfect but they’re not final, so the commission is accepting public comments on them through December 4, 2021.

Currently, Yuma enjoys a benefit most other cities and counties do not: Our area is split between two congressional districts and two legislative districts. Essentially that means we get double the representation compared to other places. We have the benefit of two US representatives to fight for us in Congress, not just one. And we have 6 state senators and representatives working for us, not just 3. That also means both Democrats and Republicans can elect officials who will reflect their views and priorities.

After the Grid Maps were released during the previous phase of the process, public hearings were held to find out what the people considered important to preserve when the IRC drew the Draft Maps. At the Yuma hearing, most speakers enthusiastically spoke in favor of the way the current boundaries split the city and county as evenly as possible between two districts so we could participate in both districts in each election. Doing so would maximize our ability to influence policies and laws to benefit our area and help us prosper.

Initially, this view was explicitly supported by the commissioners as they began work on the Draft Maps. In the early versions, Yuma was split, although not very evenly, between the southwestern districts – Congressional District 7 (CD7) and Legislative District 23 (LD23) – and those to our north – CD9 and LD30. However, over time the commission seems to have forgotten us and by the time it was approved, the Draft Map lumped all (or most) of Yuma into the southwestern districts, CD7 and LD23.

Despite strong support to keep the split, the Draft Maps throw all our advantage away. Since they lump virtually all of Yuma into the single districts to our south, with only 1 US congressman and 3 state legislators (most likely from one party), Federal and state governments will be less responsive to our regional needs. We’ll have less influence.

In addition, the Draft Maps include a ‘bump’ that pulls Wellton into CD 7, despite testimony from the folks who live there who requested it be in the same congressional and legislative districts as the surrounding areas that form a cohesive Community of Interest where Wellton is the hub.

All Yumans and Welltonians should tell the IRC to revise the Draft Maps to evenly split both Yuma and Yuma County into separate congressional and legislative districts and include Wellton in CD9. We must prevail for our region to continue to receive favorable legislative attention.

The best way to view the maps and details about their boundaries is through the IRC Draft Maps page. Scroll down to the “View Approved Draft Maps” heading. Links in the Congressional or Legislative section allow you to open the “Demographic and Competitive Data Analysis” PDF or to “Provide Feedback” about the map. Or you can click “Open Plan” to view an interactive map. Zoom in and drag the map to see more detailed boundaries in the Yuma area.

The IRC website will post information about upcoming public hearings and virtual town hall meetings where you can speak or provide comments. You can also submit comments to the IRC at any time on the Contact Us form.