Redistricting reform

Is the Secretary of State the person who should be advocating for reforms like independent redistricting?

Jim Harper, Democrat

"The Secretary of State is the chief elections officer so I think it's critical that the person in that office show leadership on making sure our election system is more fair and more robust. You mentioned nonpartisan redistricting. There is no bigger threat to our democracy than extreme partisan gerrymandering. You cannot run fair elections with unfair districts and so it's incumbent upon the Secretary of State to take leadership on that issue."

Connie Lawson, Republican incumbent

"It's the constitutional duty of the General Assembly, currently, to draw the maps, to redistrict. And so if they put a question on the ballot and voters say 'Yes, we think it should be changed,' I'm absolutely happy to support that."

Mark Rutherford, Libertarian

"As Secretary of State, if you're paying attention you should be telling the General Assembly what's working and what's not working. It should be the number one advocate for election reform. And we do need election reform. We need it on gerrymandering and redistricting, where it's not politicians picking the voters, it's voters picking the politicians. Gerrymandering prevents that; we need to have somebody there going 'This needs to change.'"