Montana’s redistricting commission has again kicked the can down the road on picking a final congressional map that splits the state into two federal districts.
Two maps were advanced a week ago, and the districting and apportionment commission was scheduled to pick one Saturday.
After hours of public comment and heated debate resulting in a deadlock, Democrats moved to approve a map proposal that makes a western district politically competitive. Republicans opposed the map, saying it’s not compact enough. They asked for more public comment on the map they proposed late last week.
The commission’s chair, Maylinn Smith, agreed with the Republicans.
“There’s additional information on that that I’d like to hear public comment on," she said.
The commission will meet again Thursday, Nov. 4.
Montanans can comment on the congressional map proposals at https://mtredistricting.gov/
The commission faces a hard deadline in two weeks to finalize a map.
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