North Carolina: Population shifts highlight redistricting problem | News & Observer

This is no longer Mayberry. The truth is, we haven’t been for some time. But the recession has accelerated the process of reshaping North Carolina. The metropolitan areas are struggling to keep up with the fast-paced growth as they attract people from around the state and the country. Meanwhile, the countryside is emptying out, a sad panorama of empty store fronts and padlocked plant gates. Since the 2010 census, about half of North Carolina’s 100 counties have lost population, said Allan Parnell, a demographer with the Cedar Grove Institute for Sustainable Communities. He spoke at a forum last week at N.C. State University that was focused on the political process of drawing lawmakers’ district boundaries. The county that has lost the most population was Rockingham County, home of Senate leader Phil Berger.

Virginia: Expert proposes altering congressional maps of Scott’s, Forbes’ districts | Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia’s 3rd Congressional District would be confined to Hampton Roads, and the cities of Richmond and Petersburg would move into the 4th District, represented by Republican Rep. J. Randy Forbes, under proposals an expert has recommended to a three-judge panel that is redrawing Virginia’s congressional map. The recommendations by Bernard Grofman of the University of California-Irvine match key aspects of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s proposal in that they seek to give African-Americans a reasonable chance of electing two members of Congress of their choice, in the 3rd and the 4th districts.

Colorado: Former governors supporting push to change redistricting rules | Colorado Springs Gazette

Two former governors want to ask voters to overhaul the way Colorado draws congressional and state legislative districts to end the gerrymandering that has created safe-districts for the majority of the state’s politicians. Former Govs. Bill Owens and Dick Lamm, a Republican and a Democrat respectively, hope to gather almost 100,000 signatures to ask voters next November to create a bipartisan independent commission and staff to handle both redistricting and reapportionment. “Putting responsibility for drawing districts in the hands of nonpartisan professionals committed to fairness and competition will produce the most accountable and effective representation in the entire country,” Owens said in a statement released Tuesday evening.

Florida: Anti-Gerrymandering Measures Didn’t Work. Here’s How Both Parties Hope to Change Them. | National Journal

Flor­ida is the only state to out­law par­tis­an ger­ry­man­der­ing while leav­ing the re­dis­trict­ing pro­cess in the hands of par­tis­an le­gis­lat­ors rather than cre­at­ing an in­de­pend­ent com­mis­sion. And after three years of lit­ig­a­tion and four months of at­tempts to draw new le­gis­lat­ive and con­gres­sion­al maps, loc­al Re­pub­lic­ans and Demo­crats have reached the con­clu­sion that the state’s unique sys­tem of re­dis­trict­ing can­not go on. Demo­crat­ic le­gis­lat­ors, in­spired by a June U.S. Su­preme Court rul­ing re­af­firm­ing the leg­al­ity of in­de­pend­ent re­dis­trict­ing com­mis­sions, hope to win Re­pub­lic­an sup­port for an in­de­pend­ent com­mis­sion to re­draw dis­trict bound­ar­ies in Flor­ida. And after months of re­dis­trict­ing chaos, some Re­pub­lic­ans have hin­ted that they could get on board.

South Korea: Saenuri offers a concession on electoral map | Korea JoongAng Daily

The ruling party drafted a proposal to cut equal number of electoral districts in the rival provinces of Gyeongsang and Jeolla to resolve deadlocked negotiation over a new constituency map, the JoongAng Ilbo learned Sunday. The JoongAng Ilbo obtained an internal document from the ruling Saenuri Party on Sunday and confirmed the proposal with a senior party official. According to the plan, the Saenuri Party will propose to the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) that Gyeongsang, the Saenuri stronghold, and Jeolla, an NPAD stronghold, will each lose two seats. Eight seats in Gwangju Metropolitan City, an NPAD stronghold, will remain unchanged.

Indiana: Redistricting Reform: Will Indiana Try Ohio’s Approach? | Public News Service

Some groups are hopeful Indiana will follow the lead of its neighbor and take steps to prevent gerrymandering. Ohio voters this month approved changes to the way its legislative districts are drawn, and a study committee in Indiana is examining what can be done here. Debbie Asberry, a board member of the League of Women Voters, said districts in Indiana currently are established in a way that can favor one political party over another. “The party in power usually draws the line to support their incumbent, to minimize competition or to eliminate competition,” she said. “The basic underlying issue is that it is a structural impediment to our democratic process.”

Arizona: GOP renews effort to reform redistricting process | Associated Press

Some lawmakers are not giving up on reforming an independent commission tasked with shaping Arizona’s congressional districts. Two Republican lawmakers are planning to bring up legislation during the next session that would ask voters to reform the redistricting process. Sen. Jeff Dial, of Chandler, says he wants a ballot referral that would expand the five-member Independent Redistricting Commission to nine. “It’s a great time to have the discussion because we can both see that it’s not a great process, I believe, from my talks to Democrats,” Dial said.

Florida: Judge denies Senate motion to appoint new consultant in redistricting case | Florida Politics

A Tallahassee trial court judge Friday afternoon denied a motion filed by the Legislature’s attorneys that sought to appoint a special consultant. Second Judicial Circuit Judge George Reynolds sided with a coalition group of plaintiffs who brought the Senate redistricting challenge that ultimately invalidated the chamber’s enacted maps. Lewis said the time frame for the court’s work was too short to implement a new course of action. “The ship has sailed, and we are on the sea with this process,” said Lewis, denying the motion brought by Senate counsel Raoul Cantero.

Editorials: Rise up, Pennsylvanians! Gerrymandering made a mess of our state | Dennis Jett/Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Pennsylvania is in its fifth month without a state budget. Schools and local governments are borrowing money to keep operating and social-service providers are cutting back programs. If Pennsylvanians want to reduce this kind of gridlock in Harrisburg, they should do what Ohio has just done. The budget impasse results from the inability of Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf and the Republican majority in the Legislature to agree on how to finance government. Mr. Wolf wants to increase taxes on the natural-gas industry and the Legislature refuses, even though Pennsylvania is the only major gas-producing state without a severance tax and among those with the lowest tax burden placed on the industry. This difference of opinion stems from the ideology of the two parties but is greatly exacerbated by the way those who go to Harrisburg are elected. Because of this process, partisan politics trumps the common good and intransigence has become ingrained.

Virginia: Supreme Court takes up Virginia redistricting case | The Washington Post

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday that it will review whether Virginia lawmakers improperly packed minority voters into one congressional district at the expense of their influence elsewhere in the state. The court will consider whether earlier court decisions that ruled the districts invalid were correct. A three-judge panel of the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia has twice invalidated the boundaries of a snake-like district that stretches from Richmond southeast to Norfolk — and ordered lawmakers to redraw the election map. The Supreme Court’s action represents a small victory for Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) and Senate Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. (R-James City), whose chambers would draw up the boundaries. Republicans had insisted on letting appeals play out before they abided by the order in case the high court intervened, as it did Friday.

Florida: Judge orders Florida Senate redistricting trial to move forward | Tampa Bay Times

Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds rejected a request by the Florida Senate to have the court hire a redistricting expert to redraw the Senate maps, saying “we just don’t have enough time left” to hire a newcomer to the process and get the boundaries set in time for the 2016 election. The quick decision after a 30-minute hearing Friday was a blow to the Florida Senate, whose lawyers argued that by hiring an expert to draw the maps instead of relying on the Legislature or challengers, they could streamline this litigation and reduce the burden to the parties and Florida’s taxpayers. “It appears to me we just don’t have enough time left to engage in any process, other than the one we are currently on,” Reynolds said in denying the Senate request. “I do that with some reluctance because I could use all the help that I can get in making this decision.”

Florida: Senate asks court to hire expert to resolve redistricting impasse | Miami Herald

After months of feuding, the Florida House and Senate reached a redistricting truce on Thursday and asked the court to hire an expert to draw a new map revising the state Senate boundaries instead of conducting a five-day trial next month. “The appointment of a consultant would streamline this litigation and reduce the burden to the parties and Florida’s taxpayers by eliminating the need for costly discovery and a five-day evidentiary hearing,” wrote the Senate lawyers to Leon County Circuit Court Judge George Reynolds. “It would also eliminate any suspicion that the adopted map was laden with improper intent.” Reynolds had asked the parties to submit a scheduling plan for the Senate redistricting trial by Thursday. But after receiving the call for an expert, Reynolds issued an order saying the trial would move ahead as scheduled, with maps submitted by next Wednesday. There was no mention of what he will do with the Senate’s request.

South Dakota: Activists submit 8 ballot measures to secretary of state | Associated Press

Backers of eight ballot measures ranging from allowing medical marijuana to instituting nonpartisan elections in South Dakota have submitted petitions to put the plans before voters next year. Secretary of State Shantel Krebs said in a statement Tuesday that it will likely take her office until Jan. 1 to review the proposals. The ballot questions include four initiated measures and four constitutional amendments that were submitted by the Monday deadline. Supporters had to provide at least 13,871 signatures for initiated measures and at least 27,741 for amendments. The office looks at signatures and petition completeness as part of its review before the measures appear on the ballot. Several other measures are already set to go before voters in 2016.

South Korea: Failed redistricting causes confusion for political newcomers | The Korea Times

Ruling and opposition parties failed to meet the legal deadline to redraw the electoral map Friday, causing trouble for political candidates planning to debut in next year’s general election. Talks on redrawing constituencies are likely to drag into next year due to the rival parties’ disagreements on whether to decrease the number of those elected under proportional representation. With four weeks before preliminary candidate registration on Dec. 15, potential newcomers may be put at a disadvantage in launching their campaigns, say critics. They are expected to have difficulty choosing their constituencies because they will not be sure where they should register for the election, scheduled for April 13, 2016.

Florida: State Supreme Court Weighs Redistricting Plans | Sunshine State News

A key Florida Supreme Court justice sounded skeptical Tuesday about the Legislature’s proposal for a contested South Florida district in a battle over the map for the state’s congressional delegation. Meanwhile, two congresswomen vowed to take the fight to the federal courts after their districts were largely ignored during oral arguments before the state Supreme Court, raising the prospect of more uncertainty in the nearly four-year saga about how to redraw the state’s political boundaries under a voter-approved ban on political gerrymandering. “There is no justice in this courthouse,” said Democratic Congresswoman Corrine Brown in a fiery speech after the hearing. “I will be going to the federal courthouse, because there is no justice and there will be no peace. We’ll go all the way to the United States Supreme Court.”

Florida: Legislature and challengers blame each other for redistricting ‘manipulation’ | Tampa Bay Times

Who is to blame for the latest legislative impasse over redistricting? The finger-pointing began quickly last week as Florida lawmakers adjourned their second special session on redistricting and faced the prospect of another court-ordered map. Lawmakers blamed the Fair Districts amendments to the state constitution as impossible to follow, and House and Senate leaders lashed out at the challengers — a coalition of Democrat-leaning individuals and voter groups led by the League of Women Voters and Common Cause of Florida — for manipulating the process. This week, the challengers lashed back.

Florida: Supreme Court grills House attorney about redistricting favoritism | Bradenton Herald

The three-year battle over Florida’s congressional boundaries moved to the state’s highest court Tuesday where lawyers for the Legislature tried to get a trial court map declared unconstitutional but instead found themselves defending the way lawmakers handled two Hispanic districts in Miami-Dade County. Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente, who authored the landmark ruling in July that invalidated Florida’s 27 congressional districts, grilled the attorney for the Florida House for “jumping over” portions of the ruling “as if it didn’t exist.” “The reason that it was to be redrawn was it was drawn to favor the Republican Party,” Pariente told George Meros, the lawyer for the House. When the House redrew Districts 26 and 27 in Miami, “it was redrawn to favor Republicans even more than the original,” she said. “I’m having trouble with the House’s position here.” Meros countered: “There is no evidence in the record that these map drawers drew that configuration in order to improve Republican performance,” he said. “They had no idea.”

Texas: Voter Maps Disputed as Biased to be Used in 2016 Elections | Bloomberg

Texans will vote in the 2016 elections using electoral maps that activists have challenged in court for five years as biased against the state’s burgeoning minority population. A panel of federal judges in San Antonio ruled Friday it’s too close to the March 1 primary to change district boundaries. Civil rights advocates had sought to put in place new maps now to prevent Hispanic and black voters from having their voting strength minimized for another election cycle. The judges said they haven’t made a final decision whether the Republican-drawn districts violate federal voting-rights protections. They said they didn’t want to risk delaying elections or confusing voters so close to the start of voting. Candidates for most elective offices can begin filing to to run on Nov. 14.

South Korea: Electoral map talks may drag on into next year | The Korea Times

The ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy (NPAD) resumed their negotiations Tuesday to redraw constituencies in preparation for the general election slated for April 13 next year. They previously planned to complete the talks by Friday, five months ahead of the election, following the collapse of their previous talks, but the deadline is likely to be extended further due to wide differences on how to redraw the electoral map. Some worry that their debates could drag on into next year. “They are not expected to reach an agreement by either the Nov. 13 deadline or anytime soon due to differing views,” said Bae Jong-chan, the chief director at political pollster Research and Research.

Florida: Lawmakers ponder new redistricting methods | News Service of Florida

After a second consecutive redistricting session fell apart Thursday and the Legislature went home yet again without passing a map, lawmakers’ message was more or less: We told you so. Five years ago, with voters set to decide whether to add the anti-gerrymandering “Fair Districts” amendments to the Florida Constitution, legislative leaders argued against it. The standards were unworkable, they argued. Despite language calling for cities and counties to be kept whole, communities that had similar interests could be divided or disregarded. The amendments would lead to endless litigation and could become a quagmire. And with the collapse this week of a special session called to redraw the 40 state Senate districts, two of the three maps once controlled by the Legislature will instead be selected by the courts. Later this week, the Florida Supreme Court will consider whether to accept a Leon County judge’s recommendation that a map submitted by voting-rights groups be used for Florida’s congressional elections.

Texas: Court orders redistricting maps to stay the same, 2016 elections will proceed | Houston Chronicle

Texas’ political maps won’t change for the 2016 elections, a federal court has ruled in a decision intended to provide certainty for candidates, election officials and voters ahead of the upcoming cycle. A three-judge panel in San Antonio on Friday rejected a motion to temporarily block a set of redistricting maps passed by the Legislature in 2013 for Congress and the Texas House. Litigation on the maps remains pending, as civil rights groups say they discriminate against minorities. The three-judge panel said it has not reached a final decision and that the current boundaries are being “used on an interim basis only.”

Florida: Senate defeats redistricting map; session crashes | Florida Times-Union

A last-ditch effort to keep the courts from drawing state Senate districts collapsed Thursday, as senators voted down a plan proposed by the House and a special session called to draw the lines crashed to an end. On a 23-16 vote, the Senate killed the House version of the map (SJR 2-C) and any hope that the Legislature would decide the lines. Nine Republicans bucked their party’s leadership and joined all 14 Democrats in opposing the plan. The redistricting issue will go to Leon County Circuit Judge George Reynolds, who likely will consider maps from the Legislature and voting-rights organizations that sued to overturn the current districts, with Reynolds ultimately recommending a plan to the Florida Supreme Court.

Texas: Court: Redistricting maps to stay the same — for now | San Antonio Express-News

Texas’ political maps won’t change for the 2016 elections, a federal court has ruled in a decision intended to provide certainty for candidates, election officials and voters ahead of the upcoming cycle. A three-judge panel in San Antonio on Friday rejected a motion to temporarily block a set of redistricting maps passed by the Legislature in 2013 for Congress and the Texas House. Litigation on the maps remains pending, as civil rights groups claim they discriminate against minorities. The three-judge panel said it has not reached a final decision and that the current boundaries are being “used on an interim basis only.” However, the court made clear it has no intention to tweak the maps before the upcoming March primaries — a move that will avoid a repeat of 2012 when redistricting map litigation threw the election cycle into disarray and caused the primaries to be delayed from March to May. The ruling eases fears of Texas getting bumped from the “Super Tuesday” slate of March primaries.

National: Supreme Court appears conflicted on dismissal of gerrymandering case | The Washington Post

The Supreme Court seemed conflicted Wednesday about whether a Maryland man may proceed with his complaint that the redistricting process in the state is unconstitutionally partisan. Some justices were concerned that a single federal district judge had decided on his own to curtail Steve Shapiro’s lawsuit over Maryland’s much-criticized gerrymandered congressional map rather than send it to a special three-judge panel to see whether the complaint had merit. Justice Stephen G. Breyer said Shapiro and his co-plaintiffs “want to raise about as important a question as you can imagine. . . . And if they are right, that would affect congressional districts and legislative districts throughout the nation.”

National: Just How Much Gerrymandering Is Unconstitutional? Wisconsin Plaintiffs Want the Supreme Court to Rule. | National Journal

Every dec­ade, when state le­gis­latures across the coun­try draw dis­tricts for them­selves and their con­gres­sion­al del­eg­a­tions, some law­makers vi­ol­ate voters’ con­sti­tu­tion­al rights by pack­ing mem­bers of the minor­ity party in­to as few dis­tricts as pos­sible. At least, that’s what the Su­preme Court has hin­ted at in past rul­ings, when it wrote that ex­treme par­tis­an ger­ry­man­der­ing can vi­ol­ate voters’ First and Four­teenth Amend­ment rights to free­dom of speech and due pro­cess. The prob­lem, the Court wrote in its 2006 League of United Lat­in Amer­ic­an Cit­izens v. Perry de­cision, is that it can’t strike down ger­ry­mandered maps without some sort of tool to de­term­ine ex­actly when dis­trict bound­ar­ies are skewed so drastic­ally that they dis­crim­in­ate based on voters’ party af­fil­i­ations. The wind­ing, snake-like dis­tricts of­ten used to il­lus­trate ger­ry­man­der­ing aren’t ne­ces­sar­ily signs of ill in­tent, and it’s of­ten ne­ces­sary to have some vari­ation in how po­lar­ized or com­pet­it­ive dis­tricts are. But the Wis­con­sin-based plaintiffs in a law­suit filed this sum­mer think that they have found the for­mula that the Court has been wait­ing for. And if they man­age to push their case to the high court and win, the law­suit’s con­sequences could ex­tend from Wis­con­sin across the en­tire na­tion.

Florida: Senate votes down map, adjourns a day early | Orlando Sentinel

For the second time in three months, the Florida Legislature will turn to the courts to redraw political boundaries needed for next year’s elections after failing to do the job itself, all while running up an $11 million taxpayer tab. Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, closed the special session a day early, saying his chamber had reached the end of its efforts for a Senate redistricting plan. “We did everything we could, and now we’ll wait and see what the court does,” Gardiner said. The session’s anti-climatic ending on Thursday came shortly after the Senate rejected a plan for the 40 districts that had been approved by the House. The vote was 23-16.

Maryland: Panel calls for independent process to tame Maryland gerrymandering | The Washington Post

A Maryland task force proposed Tuesday that the state allow an independent panel to draw the state’s voting districts, widely cited as some of the most gerrymandered in the nation. The proposals, approved 9 to 1 by a commission appointed by Gov. Larry Hogan (R), will go to Maryland lawmakers as they prepare for the next legislative session to begin in January. “These reforms would put Maryland in the front ranks of redistricting reform and establish an independent, balanced approach to creating congressional and state legislative districts,” the task force said in a report released Tuesday.

National: Supreme Court Justices Fear Loss of Control Over Redistricting Cases | The New York Times

At a Supreme Court argument on Wednesday about procedures in redistricting cases, the justices appeared to be trying to reconcile two conflicting impulses. They did not want to close the door entirely on challenges to gerrymandering, but they also did not want to be required to rule on them. Though the court has never rejected a voting district on the ground that it gave a political party an unconstitutional advantage, it has never ruled out that such a district might exist. On Wednesday, the court seemed inclined to endorse procedures that would at least treat such claims seriously by sending them to special three-judge courts created by a federal law for redistricting cases. But as the argument drew to a close, several justices voiced a competing concern — the law also allows direct appeals to the Supreme Court from rulings of the three-judge courts, meaning more work and less discretion for the justices.

Florida: Lawmakers stumble toward redistricting finish line | Sun Sentinel

Under a pressing deadline to avoid more redistricting gridlock, Florida lawmakers formally began talks late Wednesday to resolve the differences in their plans to redraw 40 state Senate districts. The House and Senate have passed competing redistricting plans, with the main differences centering on districts in Miami-Dade County. The special session to redraw the districts is scheduled to end at 3 p.m. Friday. “I don’t think there’s any way that politicians can even-handedly draw their own maps,” Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, said after senators voted to reject a version approved Tuesday by the House. “If we really want to fulfill the intent of the fair districts amendment, we need an independent redistricting commission.” Now, staffers from the House and Senate will likely draw another map in an attempt to reconcile the chambers.

Ohio: Issue 1 support may not lead to congressional redistricting reform | The Columbus Dispatch

Voters’ overwhelming support for state Issue 1 did not persuade the Ohio House speaker to pursue reform of congressional redistricting. Issue 1, which will reform Ohio’s hyper-partisan process for drawing legislative districts starting in 2021, passed with 71 percent of the vote. The bipartisan measure drew no organized opposition. Majority Republicans deliberately did not include congressional redistricting as part of the reform; some pointed to a U.S. Supreme Court case out of Arizona that has since been resolved. Groups including the League of Women Voters of Ohio, which strongly backed Issue 1, said the vast public support should prompt similar changes to a process for congressional districts that, many argue, allows for even more partisan gerrymandering.