Political Watchdog Group Sues Washington State Redistricting Commission

(Thurston County, WA) -- Washington state's bipartisan redistricting commission is facing a lawsuit accusing it of violating the state's Open Public Meeting Act. The group Washington Coalition for Open Government filed the lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court. It claims the commission broke public meeting laws by holding hours-long secret negotiations before taking a down-to-the-wire vote on new maps that were not publicly displayed or debated. Though the commission did submit a plan, it missed the deadline of 11:59pm on November 15^th. That sent the task on to the Washington Supreme Court. Commission members claimed the delay was due to the late release of the 2020 Census data, a shorter submission deadline, and other technical challenges. The Court then reviewed the work and accepted it --despite technically being late.

The lawsuit seeks fines of $500 for each of the 4 commissioners in addition to voiding the commission's final vote on the maps.