Monthly Redistricting Update: October 2020

Monthly Redistricting Update: October 2020

By EditorNov 01, 2020
Its November 1st and here is what happened on the redistricting front in October. The big news is still the litigation surrounding census operations and how the data will be presented. The Supreme Court made two decisive moves in October; first, it overruled a lower CA federal court to allow the Census Bureau to stop counting operations early; Second, it has agreed to hear oral arguments in the lawsuit over how the apportionment numbers will be tallied. Since the last update, the court has gained a ninth member, upping the unpredictability factor. Miss any of this? Read the updates below.…
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Commission Meeting Video: CA Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission

Commission Meeting Video: CA Citizens Independent Redistricting Commission

By EditorOct 31, 2020
The 14-member California Citizens Redistricting Commission was established in 2008 by a citizen's initiative. It is responsible for redrawing the state's congressional, legislative, and Board of Equalization districts (BOE). Watch commission meetings here. Commission Selection Process: The commission includes 5 Democrats, 5 Republicans, and 4 members who are unaffiliated with any party. The selection process is coordinated by the State Auditors Office and involves, background screening and an applicant review panel, which selects the most qualified applicants. The legislative leaders may reduce the Auditor's pool of qualified applicants before the State Auditor randomly selects 8 candidates from the remaining pool.…
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Commission Meeting Video: Santa Barbara County Citizens Independent Redistricting Comm.

Commission Meeting Video: Santa Barbara County Citizens Independent Redistricting Comm.

By EditorOct 31, 2020
The County's Independent Redistricting Commission consists of 11 county residents who are not elected officials, city staff, lobbyists, candidates, campaign donors, or their close family members. Consideration is also given to the goal of having a commission that reflects the diversity of Santa Barbara County. The commission must provide an open and transparent process that enables full public consideration and comment on the drawing of district lines. View the commission meetings here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu3FTBN0w-M&list=PL8SyQGix1i-UwlM5AyuSBomdr6e1B9nVT Resources Commission website California Redistricting Info California Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission Meeting Video California Local Redistricting News
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CA Federal Court Panel Invalidates Presidential Order to Exclude “Illegal Aliens” from Apportionment Count

By EditorOct 26, 2020
On Thursday (Oct. 22) a three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (San Jose Division) issued a final order and opinion invalidating the president's July memorandum that ordered census apportionment numbers exclude undocumented immigrants. A copy of the opinion is here. A federal district court in New York was the first to invalidate the July memorandum in September. That case has been scheduled for oral argument before the Supreme Court on November 30th. The San Jose court declared the presidential memorandum a "violation of the Apportionment and Enumeration Clauses of Article I, Section 2…
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Redistricting Basics: The Legal Test for Minority Vote Dilution Under the Voting Rights Act

Redistricting Basics: The Legal Test for Minority Vote Dilution Under the Voting Rights Act

By EditorOct 25, 2020
This article is an overview of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the legal test to determine how a plaintiff can prove a minority vote dilution claim under the act against a redistricting map. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) was enacted in direct response to the unapologetic disenfranchisement of minority voters, particularly in the South. Government-supported attempts to keep minorities from the polls were pursued both out in the open as well as surreptitiously. These practices included poll taxes, literacy tests, restrictive and arbitrary registration practices, white primaries, the threat of violence, actual violence, and ballot…
Race in Redistricting, Redistricting, Redistricting Race Rules
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Panel Discussion: What Are “Communities of Interest” and How Will They Affect Redistricting in Michigan?

Panel Discussion: What Are “Communities of Interest” and How Will They Affect Redistricting in Michigan?

By EditorOct 24, 2020
For a discussion on how Michigan has approached the principle of communities of interest and what this portends for the new redistricting commission, watch panelists Jocelyn Benson, Connie Malloy, Chris Lamar, Christopher Thomas, & moderator Nancy Wang discuss Michigan's approach to redistricting via an Independent Citizens Commission. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2kiEVY2Z4w&feature=emb_logo
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Analysis: Do Redistricting Maps with Deviations Under 10% Violate the Equal Population Rule? Sometimes.

Analysis: Do Redistricting Maps with Deviations Under 10% Violate the Equal Population Rule? Sometimes.

By EditorOct 23, 2020
Most legal challenges to redistricting maps based on population deviation center around deviations that are too large. However, there are a handful of cases in which a court has found a map with minimal deviations (under 10%) to be unconstitutional. What is minimal? The equal population or “one-person, one-vote standard requires general population equality between districts, but there is no precise number or percentage that defines constitutionality. Instead, the Supreme Court interprets this constitutional requirement for congressional districts to mean “strict equality,” and for legislative and other local maps, districts need only to be “substantially equal.” In practice, a clear…
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Supreme Court Schedules November Oral Argument in Undocumented Immigrant Apportionment Case

By EditorOct 19, 2020
On Friday, the Supreme Court announced it would expedite an appeal by the Trump administration after a lower district court halted the administration’s plan to exclude people who are in the country illegally from the official apportionment count numbers used in allocating seats in the House of Representatives. Read a synopsis below. Oral arguments are scheduled for November 30, just one month before the statutory deadline for delivering the apportionment numbers to the president.It is not clear if the Census Bureau will be able to meet the December 31 deadline for delivering apportionment numbers, nor is it clear how it…
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Supreme Court Stays Lower Court Restraining Order, Allows Census Counting to End Early

By EditorOct 14, 2020
On Sept. 24th the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California issued a preliminary injunction that enjoined the U.S. Census Bureau from ending its counting operations on September 30, extending the time to Oct 31. The Supreme Court issued a stay of this order last Tuesday allowing for census counting to end on Oct. 15. The order included a lone dissent from Justice Sotomayer noting " the government has not satisfied its “especially heavy burden to justify a stay pending appeal of the lower court’s injunction." Read coverage on CNN, NYT, CNBC, and Politico.
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