State looking for nonpartisan state demographer
The governor’s office will hire Missouri’s first nonpartisan state demographer next year.
The position was approved as part of the Clean Missouri amendment that voters passed in last year’s election. The state demographer will be in charge of redrawing legislative maps based on U.S. census data. Those maps will have to be voted on by state lawmakers. The first redrawn maps could be used in the 2022 election.
The state auditor’s office announced this week the application for the position is available on the auditor’s website. All applications are reviewed by auditor’s office staff.
Applications are due Dec. 4. All applicants must have a bachelor’s or master’s degree in specific areas of study, professional work in demography and other fields or coursework in demography or statistical analysis.
University of Missouri political science professor Peverill Squire said a good candidate will work for the good of the state.
“What you want to try to find is somebody that has the sort of professional credentials that suggests that he or she will be devoted to preserving their professional reputation, and not risking it by trying to tilt things in favor of one, or the other parties,” Squire said.
Squire said Iowa has used a nonpartisan staff to redraw legislative maps for nearly 40 years. He said the process will be new for Missouri.
