The manner in which New York redraws legislative district lines to reflect new census data is in desperate need of reform. Under the present system, legislators are responsible for the task, and they use this power to serve their own interests, not those of the voters. Incumbents competing in the general election have a better than 90% chance of being returned to office—and if you factor out those who are removed from office because they are embroiled in ethics scandals or criminal investigations, then it’s 95% (tinyurl.com/7wnf4d2). This rigged system discourages potential challengers and voters alike. This year a full third of all legislative races will be uncontested—and New York is likely to remain the state with lowest level of voter participation (tinyurl.com/l8fubcp).

New Yorkers who bother to go to the polls on Election Day will have the opportunity to vote on Proposition 1, a constitutional amendment that would permanently change the way Assembly and state Senate district lines are drawn. Supporters tout Prop 1 as a reform measure that would put redistricting in the hands of a commission, but in reality it keeps control of the process where it’s always been, in the hands of the legislative leaders who are responsible for the mess we’re in today.

The commission created under Prop 1 would be comprised of 10 members—two named by the president of the Senate, two by the Assembly speaker and two each by the minority leaders of both houses. No wonder Speaker Sheldon Silver (D) and Senate Co-president Dean Skelos are among the biggest boosters of the plan; between them they’d get to pick four of the 10 commission members, while their colleagues would get to pick another four. Two commission members would be selected by the eight legislative picks.

To attract support for Prop 1, the board of elections drafted ballot language describing the commission as “independent,” but this dubious description was challenged in court. In September, Albany Supreme Court Judge Patrick McGrath ruled that the commission, “cannot be described as ‘independent’ when eight out of the 10 members are the handpicked appointees of the legislative leaders and the two additional members are essentially political appointees by proxy.”

Prop 1 would enshrine a broken system in the state constitution, and that’s reason enough to oppose it, but there are other reasons as well. First, it gives equal power to Republicans and Democrats regardless of the support they receive from the voters, and that’s bound to produce deadlock. The amendment anticipates this outcome and offers a solution—if the commission can’t agree on a plan… the legislature gets to redistrict. In other words, we’ll be right back where we started. Critics also fault Prop 1 for requiring any new plan to show deference to existing districts, even though the gerrymandered districts that we have today are precisely the problem that needs to be addressed. Finally, if Prop 1 passes, you can be sure that the legislature will claim they’ve addressed the problem, and real reform will be off the table for years to come. If we are to revitalize the democratic process in New York, voters must reject Prop 1 on November 4 and send the legislature back to the drawing board.

[Bruce Ferguson is a resident of Callicoon Center.]