Co-sponsor(s):
SAMPSON
Committee: ELECTIONS
Law Section: Legislature
Committee: ELECTIONS
Law Section: Legislature
S7881 Summary
Creates a legislative advisory commission on redistricting and legislative research to draw senate, assembly and congressional districts.S7881 Actions
S7881A - REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE - Jun 8, 2010S7881A - COMMITTEE DISCHARGED AND COMMITTED TO INVESTIGATIONS AND GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS - May 27, 2010
S7881 - COMMITTEE DISCHARGED AND COMMITTED TO ELECTIONS - May 20, 2010
S7881 Memo
BILL NUMBER: S7881
TITLE OF BILL : An act providing for the creation of a legislative redistricting commission
PURPOSE : New York's present redistricting system has permitted the legislature to redraw legislative districts disregarding the public's need for fair representation and responsive government. This legislation amends current law by expanding the role of the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment into a legislative redistricting commission and creates new legislator and non-legislator memberships. The legislation also requires that the commission use objective and strict criteria that both follows state constitutional mandates and minimizes opportunities for so-called partisan gerrymandering. The legislation also requires outreach efforts for broad public participation and input.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS :
Section 1(a) creates an advisory task force commission on redistricting to draw senate, assembly and congressional districts. The commission would have twelve members, with each of the four legislative leaders appointing two legislators from their conference with one appointee from each majority designated as co-chair. The eight legislator members shall select four public members by a vote of at least six out of eight members. If legislators divide along party lines, a majority vote would require at least three of the non-legislator members. Subsection (b) The districts shall be developed by a vote of at least seven members and submitted to the legislature for a vote. The commission must establish senate and assembly districts by January 31, and congressional districts must be established by March 31, 2012. The commission must issue a report on how the redistricting plan complies with the criteria set out in the bill and must issue multiple reports if a majority cannot be reached on the plans. If the legislature fails to adopt the plan, the commission shall revise the plan and return all recommendations to the legislature. All votes shall be taken at public meetings/hearings. Commission shall promote public participation, and hold public hearings and allow adequate time for public comment/submission of proposals. Subsection (c) Allows for the appropriations of expenses necessary for such commission. Subsection (d) Describes the duties of the commission and allows the commission to conduct research and to maintain specific demographic and geographic data. All expert reports and data collected from the public shall be made available to the public.
Section 2: Criteria to be followed (a) legislative districts shall be as nearly equal in population as practicable and shall have a deviation that does not exceed ten percent of the mean population of all districts (b) Congressional districts shall be as nearly equal in population as practicable
(c) districts shall contain contiguous territory (d) no person shall be deemed to gain or lose a residence by reason of conviction/incarceration
(e) must give equal representation to racial and language minority groups
(f) criteria hierarchy to be followed: (i) to the extent possible, counties shall not be divided in the formation of districts (ii) to the extent possible, county subdivisions shall not be divided in the formation of districts except to create districts wholly within a subdivision (iii) if a town must be divided, where possible, incorporated villages shall not be divided (iv) districts shall be as compact in form as possible (v) unite communities of interest (vi) two or more incumbent members shall not be placed in the same district
EXISTING LAW :
JUSTIFICATION : This legislation is designed to make New York's redistricting process more fair, transparent, and objective. The last state senate redistricting resulted in a greater number of grossly under populated districts in upstate regions of the state and fewer districts through overpopulation in downstate areas. Districts were created neglecting common sense standards of contiguity and compactness. Communities of interest and common purpose were often ignored, tearing neighborhoods apart. Traditional redistricting criteria was simply ignored. Fewer opportunities were available for Hispanic, African American and Caribbean American communities to elect their candidates of choice. This legislation addresses the core issues of how districts should be created and who should create them. While keeping the responsibility within the legislature as required by the state constitution, the legislation expands on the role of the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment by adding additional legislators and non-legislator members. This expanded eight member commission can develop and recommend one or more plans for the senate, assembly and congress to the legislature for enactment. The commission would also deal with making changes to plans to be considered by the legislature.
Timely deadlines are provided for plan enactments permitting adequate time for either U.S. Justice Department or DC federal court approval (for Bronx, New York and Kings counties) and the orderly election administration.
The commission would be required to work with strict criteria limiting partisan advantages and abuses common to recent redistricting efforts. Districts would have to be drawn adhering to minimal population deviations, thereby preventing regional favoritism and partisan advantage while at the same time providing enough flexibility to comply with federal Voting Rights Act
Sections 5 and
Section 2 requirements.
Other major criteria limit contiguity problems by requiring that districts remain accessible within districts and minimizing connections by water. Communities of interest are defined to enable proper identification of New Yorkers when creating districts. Districts would be required to be compactly drawn, measured against standards used by the courts when reviewing redistricting plans. Partisan favoritism would be heavily eliminated by unnecessarily pairing legislators into the same district, a technique often employed by the majority party against the minority party. The legislation also addresses a long-standing civil rights issue regarding the counting of prisoners for redistricting purposes. Prisoners incarcerated in state institutions would be counted at their "home of record" for senate and assembly redistricting. Thirty years ago, New York was at the forefront of redistricting reform when it created LATFOR as a mechanism to redraw districts in a new and fairer way than in the 1960s and 1970s post-Baker v. Carr decision rounds permitted. This new legislation will move New York even further into a more open, fair and transparent process with strong criteria and greater public involvement, through additional legislator and non-legislator members and public participation.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY :
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS : None.
LOCAL FISCAL IMPLICATIONS : None.
EFFECTIVE DATE : This act shall take effect immediately
S7881 Text
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K7881
I N SENATE May 19, 2010
Introduced by Sens. DILAN, SAMPSON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Finance
AN ACT providing for the creation of a legislative redistricting commis sion
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Establishment and alteration of senate, assembly and congressional districts. a. There shall be a legislative advisory commission on redistricting and demographic research (the "commission") to draw senate, assembly and congressional districts, so that all the people of New York may be fairly represented. The temporary president of the senate, minority leader of the senate, speaker of the assembly, and minority leader of the assembly shall each appoint two legislator members from their party conference, with one appointee from each major ity designated as co-chair. The eight legislator members shall select and appoint four public members by a vote of at least six of the eight legislator members. A majority vote, if the legislators divide along party lines, would then require agreement of at least three of the four non-legislator members. No person shall be a non-legislator member of the commission who is not a registered voter in the state of New York, and who has not been, at the time of appointment, a resident of the state of New York for five years. No member of the senate or assembly, no member of congress, and no person holding judicial office, shall be a non-legislator member of the commission. Vacancies shall be filled by the original appointing legislative authority. b. The senate, assembly, and congressional districts shall be devel oped by a vote of at least seven members of the commission. The plans of senate, assembly, and congressional districts developed by the commis sion shall be submitted to the legislature for enactment. The commission shall establish the senate and assembly districts no later than the last day of January of the second year following the year in which the feder al decennial census is taken. The commission shall issue a report explaining how the districts comply with the requirements of section two of this act. Congressional districts shall be enacted into law no later EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD17441-02-0
S. 7881 2 than the last day of March of the second year following the year in which the federal decennial census is taken. The commission shall issue a report explaining how the districts comply with the requirements of section two of this act. Members of the commission shall provide the legislature with reports on multiple plans if the commission fails to achieve a majority vote on either the senate and assembly plan or the congressional plan. The commission shall meet to make adjustments to plans for congressional, assembly and senate districts should the legis lature fail to adopt the commission's plan and return such recommenda tions to the legislature. The commission's revised plans shall be submitted to the legislature for consideration. Districting plans enacted into law shall become effective for the next ensuing general election of senators, assembly members, and members of congress. The senate, assembly and congressional districts shall remain unaltered until after the subsequent federal decennial census, except that, if an alteration of such districts shall be ordered by a court of competent jurisdiction, or if such districts shall be prevented from taking effect pursuant to this article or to any provision of the constitution and laws of the United States, the commission shall meet to recommend alter ations necessary to the legislature to provide a remedy. All votes of the commission shall be taken at public meetings, and the commission shall cause transcripts of all meetings and hearings, including all testimony submitted in writing, to be made publicly available. The commission shall promote informed public understanding of, and partic ipation in, the process of redistricting, by such means as providing information to the public, holding hearings and adequate public comment periods before and after plans are finalized, and encouraging submission of proposals. c. The legislature shall make necessary appropriations for the expenses of the commission, provide for compensation and reimbursement of expenses for the members and staff of the commission, assign to the commission any additional duties that the legislature may deem necessary to the performance of the duties stipulated in this act, and require other agencies and officials of the state of New York and its political subdivisions to provide such information and assistance as the commis sion may require to perform its duties. d. Subject to such reasonable regulations as the legislature shall enact, the commission shall, with the approval of the temporary presi dent of the senate, minority leader of the senate, the speaker of the assembly and the minority leader of the assembly as may be necessary to perform its duties, hire staff, enter into contracts, conduct research, hold hearings, and communicate with the public; shall assemble and main tain such geographic, demographic, election, and voter registration data as may be necessary for the analysis and evaluation of proposed and established plans of senate, assembly, and congressional districts, including, but not limited to, the compliance of such plans with the provisions of this act and with the constitution and laws of the United States; and shall cause all such data, and all expert reports, results of any other research conducted under a contract entered into by the commission, and proposals for districts submitted by the public, to be made publicly available.
S 2. Criteria to be followed. a. All districts of a house of the legislature shall be as nearly equal in population as is practical, except as necessary to satisfy the requirements of subdivisions c, e and f of this section, but the difference in population between the most and least populous senate districts shall not exceed ten percent of the mean S. 7881 3 population of all senate districts, and the difference in population between the most and least populous assembly districts shall not exceed ten percent of the mean population of all assembly districts. For any contiguous group of senate or assembly districts, the percentage of the total number of such districts contained within such group, and the percentage of the total population of the state contained within such group, both expressed as two-digit numbers followed by two-digit deci mals, shall not differ by an amount greater than 0.50. The populations of any two senate or assembly districts adjoining within a county subdi vision, or, in New York city, within a county, shall not differ by an amount greater than two percent of the mean population of such two districts. b. All congressional districts shall be as nearly equal in population as is practicable. c. Each district shall consist of contiguous territory; no district shall consist of parts entirely separated by the territory of another district of the same body, whether such territory be land or water, populated or unpopulated. A populated census block shall not be divided by a district boundary, unless it can be determined that the populated part of such block is within a single district. d. The whole number of persons reported in the federal decennial census shall be the basis for determining populations for the purposes of this article, except that, for the purpose of determining the popu lations of senate and assembly districts, no person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence by reason of conviction and incarcera tion in a federal or state correctional facility. e. Senate, assembly, or congressional districts shall not be estab lished that result in a denial to members of racial and linguistic minority groups of an equal opportunity with other citizens to partic ipate in the political process and to elect the representatives of their choice. The principles stated in subdivision f of this section shall be used to create districts that will afford fair representation to the members of those racial and linguistic minority groups who are suffi ciently numerous and whose residential patterns afford the opportunity of creating districts in which they will be able to elect represen tatives of their choice. f. Subject and subsidiary to the requirements of subdivisions a, b, c, d and e of this section, the following principles shall be followed in the creation of senate, assembly, and congressional districts. A princi ple with a lower number shall have precedence over a principle with a higher number. i. To the extent possible, counties shall not be divided in the forma tion of districts, except to create districts wholly within a county pursuant to state law. ii. Where possible, county subdivisions shall not be divided in the formation of districts, except to create districts wholly within a coun ty subdivision. For the purposes of this article, a county subdivision shall be a city (except for a city with a population of one million or more), a town, or an Indian reservation whose territory is exclusive of the territory of any city or town. To the extent possible, county subdi visions with larger populations shall be divided in preference to divi sion of those with smaller populations. iii. If a town must be divided, where possible, incorporated villages shall not be divided. iv. Senate, assembly, and congressional districts shall be as compact in form as is possible. Plans of senate, assembly, or congressional S. 7881 4 districts shall be compared, using average numerical measures, for each such plan, of: (A) geographic dispersion, the degree to which the terri tory of districts is either tightly packed or widely spread out; (B) the relation of the perimeter lengths to the areas of districts; and (C) the dispersion of the populations of districts; but no measure shall be employed that is scale-sensitive, according different weight to the compactness of districts in rural, as compared with urban areas, or yielding different measures for identically shaped districts that differ only in absolute size. v. To the extent possible, a senate, assembly, or congressional district shall unite communities defined by actual shared interests, taking account of geographic, social, economic, and other factors that indicate commonality of interest, and districts shall be formed so as to promote the orderly and efficient administration of elections. vi. To the extent possible, the residences of two or more incumbent members of the same body shall not be placed in the same district of such body, and the residences of incumbent legislators and members of congress shall be included in the district with the largest number of their existing constituents, but the requirements of subdivisions a, b, c, d and e of this section, and of paragraphs i, ii, iii, iv and v of this subdivision, shall always take precedence over, and shall never be subordinated to, the requirements of this paragraph or the preservation of the cores of existing districts.
S 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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