Chairman’s Note: Reading headlines like this one from the Rapid City Journal makes me wonder how predetermined the whole redistricting process can be. North Rapid City provides a great example. With a significant Native American and low-income population, north Rapid City has concerns largely different from its surrounding communities, yet legislators decided to keep north Rapid divided into thirds to diminish the representation of its constituents. Why? Because that’s how it’s always been. North Rapid loses when the power of its constituents is diluted between three districts whose legislators don’t have to listen to their concerns.
