CONGRESSIONAL REDISTRICTING - S.B. 810 (S-6): FLOOR ANALYSIS
Senate Bill 810 (Substitute S-6 as reported by the Committee of the Whole)
Sponsor: Senator Bill Schuette
Committee: Reapportionment
CONTENT
The bill would create the "Congressional Redistricting Act" to require the Legislature to enact a redistricting plan for congressional districts apportioned to Michigan. A plan would have to be enacted by November 1, 2001, and every 10 years thereafter. Except as otherwise required by Federal law for congressional districts in Michigan, the plan could be enacted using only the guidelines contained in the bill, in the order of priority described below.
The constitutional guideline would be that each congressional district would have achieve precise mathematical equality of population in each district. District boundaries would have to be determined by use of population data from the U. S. Census Bureau identical to those from the actual enumeration conducted by the Bureau for the apportionment of the Representatives of the U.S. House of Representatives in the U.S. decennial census. The apportionment data for redistricting, however, could not include any population that was not allocated to specific census blocks within the State, such as Americans residing overseas, even if that population were legally included in the apportionment data of this State for the purpose of allocating seats among the states. District boundaries could not be determined by use of Census Bureau population counts derived from any other means, including the use of statistical sampling to add or subtract population by inference. Other governmental census figures of total population could be used if taken after the last decennial U.S. census and the U.S. census figures were not adequate for the bill's purposes. A contract could be entered into with the Census Bureau or any other governmental unit to make any special census if the latest U.S. decennial census figures were not adequate.
The Federal statutory guidelines would require each congressional district to be entitled to elect a single member, and prohibit each district from violating Section 2 of Title I of the Federal Voting Rights Act, which provides that no voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure may be imposed or applied by any state or political subdivision in a manner that results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any U.S. citizen to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.
The secondary guidelines, in no order of priority, pertain to contiguous areas, preservation of county lines, compactness, splitting, and numbering.
The provisions of the proposed Act would be severable.
- Legislative Analyst: S. Lowe
FISCAL IMPACT
The bill would have an indeterminate fiscal impact on State government. Potential costs related to a special census, if a future United States decennial census were determined to be inadequate, would depend on the scope of the special census.
Date Completed: 10-27-99 - Fiscal Analyst: B. Bowermanfloor\sb810 - Analysis available @ http://www.michiganlegislature.org
This analysis was prepared by nonpartisan Senate staff for use by the Senate in its deliberations and does not constitute an official statement of legislative intent.