SF 1326

1st Unofficial Engrossment - 82nd Legislature (2001 - 2002) Posted on 12/15/2009 12:00am

  1.1                          A joint resolution 
  1.2             relating to redistricting; establishing districting 
  1.3             principles for legislative and congressional plans. 
  1.4      
  1.5      BE IT RESOLVED, by the Legislature of the State of 
  1.6   Minnesota that a plan for redistricting seats in the Legislature 
  1.7   or the United States House of Representatives must adhere to the 
  1.8   following principles: 
  1.9      (1) [NUMBER OF DISTRICTS.] (a) The Senate must be composed 
  1.10  of 67 members.  The House of Representatives must be composed of 
  1.11  134 members.  Each district is entitled to elect a single member.
  1.12     (b) A plan for congressional districts must have eight 
  1.13  districts, each entitled to elect a single member. 
  1.14     (2) [NESTING.] A representative district may not be divided 
  1.15  in the formation of a Senate district. 
  1.16     (3) [EQUAL POPULATION.] (a) Legislative districts must be 
  1.17  substantially equal in population.  The population of a 
  1.18  legislative district must not deviate from the ideal by more 
  1.19  than .75 percent, plus or minus.  The ideal population of a 
  1.20  House district is 36,713.  The ideal population of a Senate 
  1.21  district is 73,425. 
  1.22     (b) Congressional districts must be as nearly equal in 
  1.23  population as practicable.  The ideal population of a 
  1.24  congressional district is 614,935. 
  2.1      (4) [CONTIGUITY; COMPACTNESS.] The districts must be 
  2.2   composed of convenient contiguous territory.  To the extent 
  2.3   consistent with the other principles in this resolution, 
  2.4   districts should be compact.  Contiguity by water is sufficient 
  2.5   if the water is not a serious obstacle to travel within the 
  2.6   district. 
  2.7      (5) [MINORITY REPRESENTATION.] (a) The dilution of racial 
  2.8   or ethnic minority voting strength is contrary to the laws of 
  2.9   the United States, the state of Minnesota, and public policy.  
  2.10  The principles in this resolution must not be construed to 
  2.11  supersede any provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, as 
  2.12  amended. 
  2.13     (b) A proposed redistricting plan must not have the intent 
  2.14  or effect of dispersing or concentrating minority population in 
  2.15  a manner that prevents minority communities from electing their 
  2.16  candidates of choice. 
  2.17     (6) [PRESERVING COMMUNITIES OF INTEREST.] The districts 
  2.18  should attempt to preserve identifiable communities of interest 
  2.19  where that can be done in compliance with the preceding 
  2.20  principles.  For purposes of this clause, "community of interest"
  2.21  means a recognizable area with similarities of interests, 
  2.22  including, but not limited to, racial, ethnic, geographic, local 
  2.23  governmental, social, cultural, or historic interests, as well 
  2.24  as commonality of communications. 
  2.25     (7) [POLITICAL COMPETITIVENESS.] The districts must not be 
  2.26  created to unduly favor any political party. 
  2.27     (8) [NUMBERING.] (a) The legislative districts must be 
  2.28  numbered in a regular series, beginning with House district 1A 
  2.29  in the northwest corner of the state and proceeding across the 
  2.30  state from west to east, north to south, but bypassing the 
  2.31  eleven-county metropolitan area until the southeast corner has 
  2.32  been reached; then to the eleven-county metropolitan area 
  2.33  outside the cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul; then in 
  2.34  Minneapolis and St. Paul. 
  2.35     (b) The congressional district numbers must begin with 
  2.36  district one in the southeast corner of the state and end with 
  3.1   district eight in the northeast corner of the state. 
  3.2      (9) [NONCONTIGUOUS PORTIONS OF MINOR CIVIL DIVISIONS.] If a 
  3.3   noncontiguous portion of a minor civil division exists within 
  3.4   another minor civil division or if discontiguous portions of a 
  3.5   minor civil division are split by another minor civil division, 
  3.6   the splitting of a minor civil division is not considered a 
  3.7   split for purposes of these principles if any of the following 
  3.8   circumstances exist: 
  3.9      (a) the minor civil division must be split to achieve 
  3.10  equality of population between districts; 
  3.11     (b) a portion of a minor civil division is wholly contained 
  3.12  within another minor civil division, and that other minor civil 
  3.13  division would have to be split to keep the first minor civil 
  3.14  division intact; or 
  3.15     (c) the noncontiguous portion of a minor civil division 
  3.16  cannot be included in the same district with another portion of 
  3.17  the same minor civil division without creating a noncontiguous 
  3.18  district. 
  3.19     (10) [DATA TO BE USED.] The geographic areas and population 
  3.20  counts used in maps, tables, and legal descriptions of the 
  3.21  districts must be those used by the Geographic Information 
  3.22  Systems Office of the Legislative Coordinating Commission.  The 
  3.23  population counts will be the block population counts provided 
  3.24  under Public Law Number 94-171, subject to correction of any 
  3.25  errors acknowledged by the United States Census Bureau. 
  3.26     (11) [DATA READY; PLANS POSTED.] The director of Geographic 
  3.27  Information Systems shall notify the President of the Senate and 
  3.28  the Speaker of the House of Representatives when the necessary 
  3.29  census data has been received from the United States Census 
  3.30  Bureau, loaded into the Legislature's computerized redistricting 
  3.31  system, and verified as ready for use in redistricting.  A 
  3.32  redistricting plan must not be considered for adoption by the 
  3.33  Senate or House of Representatives until: 
  3.34     (a) the notice has been given; 
  3.35     (b) a block equivalency file showing the district to which 
  3.36  each census block has been assigned, in a form prescribed by the 
  4.1   director of Geographic Information Systems, has been filed with 
  4.2   the director. 
  4.3      (12) [PRIORITY.] Where it is not possible to fully comply 
  4.4   with the principles provided in paragraphs (1) to (7), a 
  4.5   redistricting plan must give priority to those principles in the 
  4.6   order in which they are listed in this resolution, except to the 
  4.7   extent that doing so would violate federal or state law. 
  4.8      (13) [EXPIRATION.] This resolution expires December 31, 
  4.9   2002.