I believe that the independent commissions should be used to set the boundaries of electoral districts. Currently, gerrymandering is a significant issue in the United States, as elected state politicians face at least two conflicts of interest. On the one hand, incumbent legislators want to ease their reelection, which makes them rearrange the districts to select their voters. On the other hand, each political party wants to stack the deck in its favor. The problem of gerrymandering is crucial in Eastern states of the US, where the gerrymandering score varies between 65 and 100. One of the most evident solutions to the problem is letting an independent commission set the boundaries of electoral districts.
There are numerous advantages of the solution. In particular, the utilization of independent commissions allows the boundaries to follow a logical order, communities that do not support the majority party will be better represented, and parties will receive a fair number of seats. In other words, the setting of boundaries will be depoliticized, which is crucial for preventing bias and discrimination. An independent commission is expected to bring a neutral viewpoint to the question.
At the same time, there are some drawbacks of using the commissions for the purpose. The central problem is that the power will be in the hands of unelected people, which is against the principles of democracy. Moreover, there is no guarantee that the members of the independent commissions will not be influenced by politicians. However, using independent commissions was allowed in 2015 by the elected members of government. This implies that the will of the people is represented fairly. As for the possibility of being influenced by the politicians, I understand that such events may occur; however, using independent commissions for setting the electoral district’s boundaries remains the most unbiased option from the ones available.