New York State

Who is the man tasked with redrawing New York’s new district lines?

After the courts threw out gerrymandered maps, redistricting expert Jonathan Cervas will come up with new ones.

Jonathan Cervas is tasked with coming up with new state lines.

Jonathan Cervas is tasked with coming up with new state lines. Carnagie Melon University

With New York’s congressional and state Senate maps officially tossed after a Court of Appeals decision, all eyes now turn to one man: Jonathan Cervas, who is tasked with coming up with new lines. A state Supreme Court judge appointed Cervas as a neutral special master to submit new maps for court approval should the need arise. It was a preemptive move before an intermediate court had even heard arguments for its appeal, but ultimately a warranted one as Cervas can immediately begin his work to offer new maps to the court by a May 16 deadline.

If reading Cervas’ name has left you scratching your head, you’re not alone. He is not a well-known politician, a pundit that offers opinions on cable news or a famous attorney who hosts a podcast. In fact, he’s not even from New York. But Cervas is someone with experience in cleaning up redistricting messes with a PhD in political science who has done extensive research on reapportionment, even if the average New Yorker has never heard of him. As he goes about his new task of evaluating the state Senate and congressional maps in order to submit new ones, here are four things to know about the man entrusted with drawing lines that could impact the balance of Congress. 

This is not Cervas’ first rodeo …

Cervas most recently served as a consultant for the Pennsylvania Legislative Reapportionment Commission, tasked with redistricting in his home state. The maps he helped draw had bipartisan approval, with four out of the five commission members representing both Democrats and Republicans voting in favor of the lines he helped to draw. And when the maps headed to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for final approval, the court did so unanimously – a rarity in the state where the courts often split along party lines. Cervas received praise for his work in Pennsylvania, with the commission’s chair Mark Nodenberg telling Spectrum News that he is “smart, well-educated, experienced, knows the law and really is committed to basic fairness under the law.”

… But Cervas is flying solo for the first time

Although he comes in with extensive experience and credentials, this is Cervas’ first time serving as a court-appointed special master. In the past, he worked as an assistant to a special master in three different cases that required judicial remediation. The first was in 2017 in Utah, the second a year later in Virginia, where he helped to redraw a quarter of the state’s House of Delegates district lines after a challenge made its way to the Supreme Court, and most recently in Georgia in a case involving school districts that garnered national attention. This time around, Cervas will act as the special master himself, taking charge of the map drawing process. 

Cervas lives and breathes politics and redistricting

Cervas has both an undergraduate degree and PhD in political science, the latter of which he earned in 2020. He wrote his dissertation on the electoral college, exploring both its history and its consequences. Cervas is also a specialist in mapping technology called geographic information systems, a helpful tool in evaluating the fairness of legislative maps and assessing the influence of potential gerrymandering. Until relatively recently, he worked as a research associate for the Princeton Gerrymandering Project, dedicated to ensuring fair representation during redistricting. And now, when he isn’t helping courts and states with redistricting, Cervas is a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University. Get a taste of his expertise for yourself in this 15-minute video in which he explains “13 keys to understanding contemporary American politics.”

He thinks Donald Trump should support ranked-choice voting

Cervas has published several papers relating to redistricting, democracy and the electoral college. But one paper entitled “Why Donald Trump Should be a Fervent Advocate of Using Rank-Choice Voting in 2024” would catch the eye of any ranked-choice voting enthusiast, particularly in New York City, which just implemented its first elections with the system in its primaries last year. It makes the case that Trump could have won more states had they implemented ranked-choice voting in the presidential election in 2020 due to votes likely drawn away by the Libertarian candidate in the race. Why? To show that ranked-choice voting is not just something that would benefit Democrats. Not related to redistricting, but both interesting and a testament to Cervas’ nonpartisan mindset.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.