Bill Text: VA SJR298 | 2015 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Constitutional amendment; apportionment, partisan balance.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2015-02-03 - Passed by indefinitely in Privileges and Elections (12-Y 3-N) [SJR298 Detail]
Download: Virginia-2015-SJR298-Introduced.html
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15103524D RESOLVED by the Senate, the House of Delegates concurring, a majority of the members elected to each house agreeing, That the following amendment to the Constitution of Virginia be, and the same hereby is, proposed and referred to the General Assembly at its first regular session held after the next general election of members of the House of Delegates for its concurrence in conformity with the provisions of Section 1 of Article XII of the Constitution of Virginia, namely: Amend Section 6 of Article II of the Constitution of Virginia as follows: Section 6. Apportionment. Members of the House of Representatives of the United States and members of the Senate and of the House of Delegates of the General Assembly shall be elected from electoral districts established by the General Assembly. Every electoral district shall be composed of contiguous and compact territory and shall be so constituted as to give, as nearly as is practicable, representation in proportion to the population of the district. The electoral districts shall be drawn to reflect the voting patterns of the Commonwealth with, to the extent practicable, half of the districts more favorable than statewide totals to each of the two political parties most often receiving the most votes cast in statewide elections. Further, to the extent practicable, districts shall be drawn so that the difference in votes between the top two candidates in recent statewide elections was within competitive margins. The General Assembly shall reapportion the Commonwealth into electoral districts in accordance with this section in the year 2011 and every ten years thereafter. Any such decennial reapportionment law shall take effect immediately and not be subject to the limitations contained in Article IV, Section 13, of this Constitution. The districts delineated in the decennial reapportionment law shall be implemented for the November general election for the United States House of Representatives, Senate, or House of Delegates, respectively, that is held immediately prior to the expiration of the term being served in the year that the reapportionment law is required to be enacted. A member in office at the time that a decennial redistricting law is enacted shall complete his term of office and shall continue to represent the district from which he was elected for the duration of such term of office so long as he does not move his residence from the district from which he was elected. Any vacancy occurring during such term shall be filled from the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled. |
