Bill Text: NJ ACR189 | 2016-2017 | Regular Session | Introduced

New Jersey Assembly Concurrent Resolution 189 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Revises process for legislative reapportionment.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-06-16 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Judiciary Committee [ACR189 Detail]

Download: New_Jersey-2016-ACR189-Introduced.html

ASSEMBLY CONCURRENT RESOLUTION No. 189

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

217th LEGISLATURE

INTRODUCED JUNE 16, 2016

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman TROY SINGLETON

District 7 (Burlington)

SYNOPSIS

Revises process for legislative reapportionment.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

As introduced.

A Concurrent Resolution proposing to amend Article IV, Section III, paragraphs 1 and 2 of the New Jersey Constitution.

Be It Resolved by the General Assembly of the State of New Jersey (the Senate concurring):

1. The following proposed amendments to the Constitution of the State of New Jersey are agreed to:

PROPOSED AMENDMENTS

a. Amend Article IV, Section III, paragraph 1 to read as follows:

1. After the next and every subsequent decennial census of the United States, the Senate districts and Assembly districts shall be established, and the senators and members of the General Assembly shall be apportioned among them, by an Apportionment Commission consisting of ten members, five to be appointed by the chairman of the State committee of each of the two political parties whose candidates for Governor receive the largest number of votes at the most recent gubernatorial election. Each State chairman, in making such appointments, shall give due consideration to the representation of the various geographical areas of the State. No person holding elective public office and no employee of the Legislature shall be eligible to serve as a member of the commission. Appointments to the Commission shall be made on or before November 15 of the year in which such census is taken and shall be certified by the Secretary of State on or before December 1 of that year.

After each federal decennial census, the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services shall prepare and submit to the Commission two legislative apportionment plans, which shall include maps, to be known as "independent apportionment plans." One plan shall include legislative districts that are drawn beginning at the northernmost point of this State. The other plan shall include legislative districts that are drawn beginning at the southernmost point of this State. The plans shall comply with all applicable constitutional principles and shall be drafted in a manner that does not favor the election of candidates of a particular political party or the reelection of incumbent members of the Legislature.

The Executive Director of the Office of Legislative Services shall assign such staff as may be necessary and appropriate for the office to fulfill its responsibilities under this paragraph. In preparation for drawing legislative apportionment plans, the office shall obtain appropriate information, review and evaluate available facilities, and develop programs and procedures. The Office of Legislative Services shall obtain from the United States Bureau of the Census information regarding geographic and political units in this State for which federal census population has been gathered and will be tabulated. The Office of Legislative Services shall use the data so obtained to:

prepare necessary descriptions of geographic and political units for which census data will be reported and which are suitable for use as components of legislative districts; and

prepare maps of counties, municipalities, and other geographic units within the State, which may be used to illustrate legislative district boundaries proposed in plans drawn as provided herein.

The Office of Legislative Services shall provide the commission with such professional staff support services and such clerical services as shall be necessary for the Commission to conduct its deliberations and fulfill its responsibilities under this paragraph.

The Commission shall conduct three hearings at different locations throughout the State using the independent plans prepared by the Office of Legislative Services. Thereafter, the Executive Director of the Office of Legislative Services may revise each of the plans one time based on relevant comments from members of the public or members of the Commission. The revised independent plans shall replace the prior plans which shall not be considered further by the Commission.

Following completion of the three public hearings, the members appointed by the State chairman of each political party may prepare apportionment plans to be known as "independent apportionment plans" which shall be considered by the Commission along with the plans prepared by the Office of Legislative Services. If an eleventh member is appointed to the Commission pursuant to paragraph 2, Section III, Article IV of this Constitution, that member shall not prepare the member's own plan or map for consideration by the Commission, but may make suggestions to the Commission's members in regard to the independent or partisan plans or maps. In preparing any plan or map, the Commission shall not give consideration to the continuation in office of incumbent elected officials.

The Commission shall conduct two public hearings on the partisan plans, one during the day and one in the evening, at the State House Complex in Trenton.

All data used by the Office of Legislative Services or the Commission in creating an independent plan or a revised independent plan shall be a government record that is accessible to the public in the manner provided by law. The final plan shall be a government record that is accessible to the public beginning one week before the Commission, by a majority vote of the whole of its members, certifies the establishment of Senate and Assembly districts to the Secretary of State as required by this paragraph.

The Commission shall apply a test to any independent plan, revised independent plan, or partisan plan to ensure that districts in the plan are compact, contiguous, preserve communities of interest, and in compliance with the principle of one-person, one-vote and federal law.

The Commission, by a majority of the whole number of its members, shall certify the establishment of Senate and Assembly districts and the apportionment of senators and members of the General Assembly to the Secretary of State within one month of the receipt by the Governor of the official decennial census of the United States for New Jersey, or on or before February 1 of the year following the year in which the census is taken, whichever date is later.

(cf: Art.IV, Sec.III, par. 1 amended effective December 8, 1966)

b. Amend Article IV, Section III, paragraph 2 to read as follows:

2. If the Apportionment Commission fails so to certify such establishment and apportionment to the Secretary of State on or before the date fixed or if prior thereto it determines that it will be unable so to do, it shall so certify to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and he shall appoint an eleventh member of the Commission. That member shall not be a member of either of the two political parties whose candidates for Governor received the largest number of votes at the most recent gubernatorial election nor shall that member have served as an appointee of that party in any public office. The Commission so constituted, by a majority of the whole number of its members, shall, within one month after the appointment of such eleventh member, certify to the Secretary of State the establishment of Senate and Assembly districts and the apportionment of senators and members of the General Assembly.

(cf: Art.IV, Sec.III, par. 2 amended effective December 8, 1966)

2. When this proposed amendment to the Constitution is finally agreed to pursuant to Article IX, paragraph 1 of the Constitution, it shall be submitted to the people at the next general election occurring more than three months after the final agreement and shall be published at least once in at least one newspaper of each county designated by the President of the Senate, the Speaker of the General Assembly and the Secretary of State, not less than three months prior to the general election.

3. This proposed amendment to the Constitution shall be submitted to the people at that election in the following manner and form:

There shall be printed on each official ballot to be used at the general election, the following:

a. In every municipality in which voting machines are not used, a legend which shall immediately precede the question as follows:

If you favor the proposition printed below make a cross (X), plus (+), or check (a) in the square opposite the word "Yes." If you are opposed thereto make a cross (X), plus (+) or check (a) in the square opposite the word "No."

b. In every municipality the following question:

		CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REVISE THE PROCESS FOR DRAWING LEGISLATIVE DISTRICTS
	YES	Do you approve changing the Constitution in regard to how legislative districts are drawn? Do you approve giving the New Jersey Office of Legislative Services a role in this process?
	NO	INTERPRETIVE STATEMENT This amendment would change the process for drawing legislative districts. Every ten years, the Apportionment Commission uses information from the federal census to draw new legislative districts. The commission does this to ensure that each district has about the same number of people. In the past, this process has frequently resulted in each political party trying to draw districts that favor the election of its members to the Legislature. This amendment would provide that the Commission will begin the process using district maps prepared by the nonpartisan New Jersey Office of Legislative Services (OLS). These maps would not give an advantage to either political party. This amendment would also provide that elected officials and legislative staff could not serve as members of the Commission. The Commission is required to hold public hearings on the maps prepared by OLS. The members of the Commission representing each party may propose their own district maps only after the hearings have been completed using the OLS maps. The Commission will have two public hearings on these maps.

STATEMENT

This proposed constitutional amendment would change the process for drawing legislative districts. Every ten years, the Apportionment Commission uses information from the federal census to draw new legislative districts. The commission does this to ensure that each district has about the same number of people. Unfortunately, this process has frequently resulted in each political party trying to draw districts that favor the election of its members to the Legislature.

This amendment would provide that the Commission will begin the process using district maps prepared by the nonpartisan New Jersey Office of Legislative Services (OLS) that do not give an advantage to either political party. This amendment would also provide that elected officials and legislative staff would be ineligible to serve as members of the Commission, that the Commission will hold three public hearings, and that the members of the Commission representing each party may propose their own district maps only after the three hearings have been completed using the OLS maps.

The Commission will conduct two public hearings on partisan plans, one during the day and one in the evening, at the State House Complex in Trenton. All data used by the Office of Legislative Services or the Commission in creating an independent plan or a revised independent plan will be a government record that is accessible to the public in the manner provided by law. The final plan shall be a government record that is accessible to the public beginning one week prior to its adoption by the Commission.

The Commission will apply a test to any independent plan, revised independent plan, or partisan plan to ensure that districts in the plan are compact, contiguous, preserve communities of interest, and in compliance with the principle of one-person, one-vote and federal law. If the Chief Justice appoints an eleventh member to the Commission that member cannot be a member of either of the two major political parties and cannot have served as an appointee of that party in any public office.