Section 1. Amend Article II of the Constitution of the State of Delaware of 1897, as amended, by repealing Sections 2 and 2A of Article II and substituting in lieu thereof the following new Sections 2 and 2A:

"Section 2. Terms and Redistricting of the General Assembly.

(a) The Members of the House of Representatives shall serve terms of two years and the Members of the Senate shall serve terms of four years. The Senate districts shall alternate in the election cycle as provided in Title 29 of the Delaware Code.

(b) The descriptions of the boundaries of legislative districts shall be set forth in Title 29

(c) The districts of the members of the General Assembly shall be redrawn to maintain as nearly equal population within each as can be apportioned following each decennial federal Census. If any district should become unbalanced by as much as plus or minus twenty-five percent in the years preceding the next Census, a new Redistricting Commission may be established according to the guidelines in Article II, Section 2A for the decennial commission. It shall perform a redistricting in the year preceding the next election, unless the next election occurs in a year ending in 0 or 2. The determination that a deviation sufficient to require an interim redistricting exists shall be based upon a combination of voter registration lists and population figures determined by the Population Consortium, or its successor, at the University of Delaware.

Nothing in this Section shall be construed to prevent the General Assembly from increasing or decreasing the number of members of the House or the Senate if a bill is passed before the First day of May of the year before a General Election year. If such an action is taken, the redistricting process shall thereafter follow these guidelines, with dates adjusted accordingly.

(d) In the process of redrawing Delaware's legislative districts, the following priorities shall determine the changes to be made:

1. Any new plan for redistricting shall start with the core of each existing district. The means of determining the core shall be established by the Redistricting Commission with the advice and assistance of the Legislative Council and the Commissioner of Elections. If the core of all districts cannot be maintained due to population shifts or an increase in the size of the Legislature, election districts that have been within the same Representative or Senatorial District for two decades shall be given priority treatment. Those districts shall be retained as a block in any plan developed.

2. The districts will proceed in numerical order from Wilmington to Claymont to southeastern Sussex County, and no district number may be moved out of that geographic order once enacted.

3. Districts shall not be changed unnecessarily. Only upon a public showing that maintaining any of the parts of an existing district cannot be achieved in a lawful plan may a district be eliminated. When that occurs, the district's number will be assumed by the next district as the numbers of the new districts will progress north to west to south.

4. Where districts have predominately minority populations, no district may be drawn contrary to the requirements of the Voting Rights Act as interpreted by the federal courts.

5. Redrawn districts shall not further divide communities or developments unless population balance is otherwise impossible to achieve. Where a development is currently divided and changes are needed to meet population guidelines within the area, an effort shall be made first to reconnect the sections of the development into one representative district and one senatorial district. Consideration shall be given to the lines of school districts, towns, fire companies, and other communities of interest to achieve representation of each whole community of interest within one senatorial district if it can be done within the guidelines and population requirements set forth herein. The Redistricting Commission shall further define by regulation the order of priority for the types of communities of interest with the advice and assistance of the Legislative Council.

6. All parts of a district shall be contiguous. Streams shall not be treated as breaking the contiguity where roads and bridges link both sides of the stream within the district Census enumeration districts or census tracts that are connected at only one point shall not be considered contiguous. Each redistricting should strive to make districts reasonably compact. Wherever possible, the lines for the least number of House districts should be drawn within one Senate district. House and Senate district lines that coincide are preferable.

7. Boundaries that are easily identifiable--such as roads, streams, ditches, high tension wires and railroad tracks--shall be used wherever possible to assist voters to learn their district boundaries. By July First of each year ending in 8, the Commissioner of Elections shall assist the General Assembly to forward to the Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, a plan for converting the lines of the Census enumeration districts in Delaware not geographically based to identifiable geographic boundaries wherever possible. Census district lines that unnecessarily split towns, developments, or apartment complexes shall be coordinated with appropriate boundaries in the Plan.

8. The least deviation from the average population shall be the goal for each district, but no district, under any circumstances shall deviate by greater than plus or minus five per cent. No representative or senatorial district shall contain territory of all three counties. If possible, given the foregoing requirements, districts shall lie within one county.

9. No district shall be drawn purely for the political advantage or disadvantage of any individual, whether that person is an incumbent or a potential candidate for the House or Senate. If any citizen can prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a district was so drawn, the Redistricting Commission shall redraw as much of the Plan as necessary to correct the violation. A complaint must be filed by August Thirty-first after the Plan is enacted, and if the violation occurred due to the malfeasance of a member of the Commission, the remaining members shall be authorized to correct the Plan.

10. Insofar as registration permits, House and Senate districts shall be balanced among political parties and independent voters, so that competition is fostered.

11. Previous election results and addresses of incumbents shall not be included in the data used by the Commission to draw their initial plan. Following the production of the first plan, such data shall be inserted to check for political balance as required in paragraph 10. The ideal districts shall then be analyzed in relation to actual voting results for the past decade; so that the Commission can avoid drawing districts that appear to be fair, but in reality unduly favor one party or unnecessarily place more than one incumbent in a district. When a majority of one political party is in control of both houses of the General Assembly, incumbents of the minority party may not be placed in the same districts unless they reside in districts that have experienced such a relative decline in population that achieving equal population in districts is otherwise impossible.

12. All Commission work shall be done in a place accessible to the public, and any member of the public who desires to be present shall be allowed to view the work. Written comments shall be permitted at any time, and the Commission shall respond within one week.

13. Boundaries of the legislative districts shall not divide the basic Census enumeration districts.

(e) Should any voter in this State seek a Writ of Mandamus because of the outcome of redistricting, no stay of a redistricting plan shall continue past November First of the year preceding an election year.

Section 2A. The Redistricting Commission for the State of Delaware.

(a) On January Second of the year following each federal decennial Census, a Commission shall be authorized to begin work on redistricting by notice from the Governor. The Commission shall be known as “The Redistricting Commission for the State of Delaware." The Commission shall have the power to promulgate regulations with respect to the redistricting process, if necessary. The regulations shall be become final unless vetoed by a majority of the members of both houses of the General Assembly by March Fifteenth.

In order to achieve the purposes of equitable redistricting and adequate representation of constituents, the Commission shall recommend an increase in the size of the House and Senate if the population of the State has increased by more than eighty-two thousand persons in the preceding decade. Increases shall be limited to two new members of the House and one new member of the Senate for each eighty-two thousand new residents of Delaware. The Commission may also recommend an increase in the size of either the House or the Senate when the members feel the population increase has unduly burdened legislators in one region and a new district of equal population can be drawn in that region without impacting those outside the region.

The Commission shall continue in existence until a final plan of redistricting of the General Assembly for the following ten-year cycle is completed and enacted. It may be recalled to work if the need arises for a special investigation or an interim redistricting.

(b) The Commission shall be composed of five members. Each county shall have at least one member. The Commission shall be balanced politically so that no political party has a majority. One member shall be chosen by the Speaker and one member by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives. One member shall be chosen by the President Pro Tem and one member by the Minority Leader of the Senate. The Chairman of the Commission shall be chosen by the four appointed members. Should “third party” or independent candidates be elected to the General Assembly, at the time their number exceeds the membership of the majority minority party of either chamber, the leader of the minority party with the largest number of members or the leader of an independent coalition of minor parties with numbers in excess of the largest single minority party shall become the Minority Leader for purposes of appointing a member of the Commission. Should any member of the Commission become unable to serve during the remaining time the Commission is working, he or she shall be replaced by the same leader who made the appointment initially.

(c) By August 1 of each year ending in zero, the State Election Commissioner shall advertise in a newspaper of statewide circulation the pending appointment of members of the Commission. The notice shall be written in a manner to attract interest and give all interested parties or groups an opportunity to offer nominations to the four appointing Legislative leaders.

(d) By October 1 of each year ending in zero, each person with a power of appointment shall select a member of the Commission from among persons known to be of the highest character, dedicated to serving in the public interest, and nominated by a fraternal organization, local civic group, senior center, business group or other established and respected community organization. Appointments, once made, shall be reported to the Governor and the State Commissioner of Elections. By November First of the same year, the four commissioners so selected shall elect by a unanimous vote the fifth member of the Commission to serve as the Chairperson.

(e) The Commission may not exercise any of its powers or perform any of its duties until the Chairperson is elected. The names of the appointees shall be published in a newspaper of statewide circulation and six local newspapers, some in each of the three counties, by the Commissioner of Elections twice prior to their appointments. If any citizen shall object to any appointee because he or she does not qualify under the guidelines established in this section, the leaders of the House and Senate shall weigh the merits of the objection with the Commissioner of Elections and the Deputy Attorney General, who is counsel to the Commissioner. After such consultations, the leaders shall decide by a three-fourths majority whether to carry through with the appointment. Should the appointee prove to be ineligible, the person appointing that individual shall provide a new nominee to the Commission. The advertising process shall be repeated for this appointment.

(f) The names of all final members of the Commission shall be published in a newspaper of statewide circulation by January First of the year following the federal decennial Census, and the names shall be immediately available on the State of Delaware's web site. The Commission shall be staffed and operational by February Fifteenth of the same year.

(g) No member of the Commission or its staff may be or may have been a member of the Legislature or may be or may have been employed by a business that lobbies the Legislature, a political party, the General Assembly, or a political candidate during the ten years prior to hiring by, or appointment to, the Commission. No member of the Commission or its staff may have contributed more than $500 to any political party or political campaign in one year, nor have been a political consultant, during the ten years prior to his or her appointment to, or hiring by, the Commission. No member of the Commission or of the Commission's staff shall be related within the third degree of kinship to, or be, a member of the Legislature. No member shall be related within the first degree to an elected State official, a political party officer or employee, a political candidate, a Cabinet Secretary or other appointee of the Governor, or a lobbyist.

(h) Votes of the Commission shall be unanimous to decide any issue. Five members shall constitute a quorum. If communication is possible through the use and availability of two-way video conferencing equipment, members may be considered present at a meeting who participate through the use of such equipment even though they are not physically present in the meeting room. At least two members must be physically present at all meetings.

(i) All meetings shall be open to the public and advertised twice in at least six local newspapers throughout the State and one of statewide circulation, in space other than classified sections, no less than one week prior to each meeting. Meetings shall be held in a place that will accommodate public attendance. Meetings shall rotate among the three counties and be scheduled at a time and place convenient to the public. They shall be recorded by video and audio equipment and simulcast on the Internet from the State web site.

(i) Operations of the Commission shall be funded by the General Assembly on a line item within the operating budget of the Commissioner of Elections. The Redistricting Commission shall be provided with reasonable and necessary funds for at least one staff assistant who shall be qualified to operate a special computer program or other technical device to accomplish redistricting and for other necessary staff and materials. The Personnel Office shall assist the Commission in advertising and hiring assistants, but the temporary positions shall not be subject to the limitations of personnel regulations or classified within the Merit System. The Commissioner of Elections shall provide additional assistance with data and programs needed by the Commission, and it shall purchase from its budget a redistricting computer program or other technical hardware or software programs to aid in its work, if new equipment is necessary for the use of the Commission.

(k) The Commission may obtain the services of an attorney to carry out its duties, but the attorney may not be a member of a firm which obtains contracts from the State or works for a business that lobbies the Legislature on matters directly or indirectly relating to its profits; nor may he or she do so.

(l) The Commission and its staff shall be provided secure office space at a location other than Legislative Hall, the Office of the Commissioner of Elections or the Departments of Election. Members of the Commission shall be reimbursed for expenses relating to their travel and time in connection with the work of the Commission.

(m) A staff person from the Office of the Commissioner of Elections and the Departments of Election of each county shall attend all meetings of the Commission.

(n) The Commission shall have the power to subpoena witnesses and records for purposes of gathering data or conducting any investigation. Any member may administer oaths to witnesses.

(o) Once the Census Bureau has transmitted its official population figures to the State, no member of the General Assembly or its staff may discuss redistricting with any member of the Commission except in writing; although members may attend the public meetings as citizens and will be allowed to make verbal suggestions in public or in writing as any citizen may do. A Member of the General Assembly may notify the Commissioner of Elections of circumstances in a proposed plan that will thwart the purposes of this legislation, inconvenience the voters, or necessitate the creation of an election district of less than minimum size.

(p) Four public hearings shall be held upon completion of the Commission's Preliminary Plans. The Preliminary Plans for both the House and the Senate shall be prepared for public distribution by April Fifteenth. One hearing shall be held in each county and the City of Wilmington and all Commission members shall be present. Paper maps of the preliminary plans for the House and Senate shall be distributed to all libraries in the State at least one week prior to the first hearing, and small versions shall be made available from the Division of Research of the General Assembly. Preliminary plan maps must be accessible to the public on the Internet, and the site shall enable the public to download and manipulate the districts and data so that they may propose alternative plans.

(q) The Final Report of the Commission to the General Assembly shall be made by May Thirtieth of the same year unless late Census returns cause the Commission's plan work to begin later than March Fifteenth. All deadlines in this section shall be adjusted by the number of days the Census Report is late, except the final deadline of November First.

(r) The Commission's Final Redistricting Plan shall be adopted by a two-thirds vote before June Twentieth of the same year or the Plan shall be considered rejected. If the Plan is rejected, it shall be returned to the Commission. After a public hearing requiring only two days notice, the Commission shall transmit a new Plan to the General Assembly by June Twentieth-eighth, and it shall be voted on by July First of the same year. Adoption of the Commission's second proposed plan for one or both houses shall require the unanimous approval of the Members of each house. If that plan is rejected by the Legislature, the redistricting of the General Assembly will then be completed by the Chancellor of the State of Delaware and a judge of the opposite political party appointed by the President Judge of the Delaware Superior Court. The judicial plan of redistricting shall be finalized by November First of the same year and will be official without the necessity of ratification.

The cost of hiring a consultant to assist the judges to develop a redistricting plan and all costs incurred in the process shall be the responsibility of the General Assembly.

(s) If the General Assembly fails to vote on any redistricting plan for both houses timely sent to it by the Commission for approval by the deadlines in subsections (q) or (r), the first Plan submitted to it shall become law on September First of the same year. No redistricting plan may be adopted unless it contains a written description of the district boundaries rather than Census numbers alone.

(t) Whether a redistricting plan is enacted by the General Assembly or imposed by judges, the new Legislative district lines shall remain the official boundaries for the next ten years or until the adoption of a new redistricting plan is complete.

(u) The Commissioner of Elections shall insure that coordination with local and county redistricting efforts are maintained throughout the process. Once a plan has been enacted or imposed, no district lines may be changed--not even to eliminate small pockets where local and county lines do not coordinate well with State Legislative Districts to create election districts of minimum size.

(v) Members and employees of the Commission and employees of the departments of election or the Commissioner of Elections who work with the Redistricting Commission are hereby restricted from political activity or lobbying for hire during their tenure and for the following six election years. They may not be candidates for the Delaware House or Senate or a State office requiring Senate confirmation for the next four years. No employee of the Commissioner of Elections or Department of Elections who is related to a member of the Legislature or is currently active in a political party or who has been active in a political party within the past four years may work on the plan prior to its enactment.

(w) Violations of these prohibitions shall be punishable by a fine of not more than $1,000. Cases may be prosecuted in the Superior Court upon a complaint filed by any citizen or the Office of the Attorney General.

(x) The General Assembly may further define terms and elaborate on provisions of this Section by statute; provided that the language and intent of this Section is not altered thereby."

Section 2. If any provision of this Act or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the Act which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to that end the provisions of this Act are declared to be severable.

SYNOPSIS

This bill is an Amendment to the Delaware Constitution and must pass in two separate General Assemblies to be enacted. It will create an independent Redistricting Commission to draw the lines of Senate and House district boundaries. The four initial members of the Commission will be appointed by the leaders of both houses of the Legislature. The Chair will be chosen by the appointed members. All issues will be decided by a unanimous vote, thus the balance and the need to agree on a chairperson should produce fair treatment for both parties.

Extensive public hearings must be held by the Commission. Conflicts of interest and even ties of kinship and politics to members of the Legislature are prohibited. When population shifts are great and districts must be eliminated, the districts affected shall be handled in the order in which they show a negative deviation from the average.

A plan should be enacted by July 1 of the year the Census is reported to the Governor. The timetable allows for two chances. If the first Plan is not approved, the second will require unanimous approval.

If the Legislature cannot agree on one of two sets of Commission plans for redistricting, there is a default mechanism for judges to draw the plan. If the leaders just do not bring one up for a vote, the Commission’s first plan will become law. Either way, a plan will go into effect in time for candidates to prepare for the following election. Everything will be finished by November 1 of the year preceding the election. Districts are required to be contiguous. The confusing habit of lifting a district number out of order and moving it miles away has been prohibited. Because the current system that produces many legislators trying to help one development is highly inefficient, the chopping up of developments, small towns, school districts and fire companies will be eliminated as much as possible. This will take time to accomplish, and the Commission will need to determine how to set priorities for dealing with such criteria.

Several other provisions are included that should work to make redistricting less confusing to constituents. The first attempt to draw a plan must start with the core of existing districts. This is because the members of committees, the numbering of election districts, research on voting history and the knowledge of the voters are factors that are disturbed by changes. Where changes are unnecessary, it is not in the best interest of voters to make them. Districts cannot be totally eliminated unless a showing can be made that it is impossible to retain them and stay within the major requirements such as equality of population.

The initial plan must be drawn without reference to the addresses of incumbents, but in the attempt to insure political party balance in the second round of perfecting a plan, they will be viewed in the context of studying the voting patterns of each district.

A population increase figure is included to trigger enlarging the General Assembly, but the Commission will also have the power to recommend an increase in the House or Senate where a huge increase in population may be adversely affecting representation in one region.

Provision is made for staffing and housing the Commission outside of Legislative Hall. Strict limits are put on who may be hired and what jobs they may seek afterward. The Department of Elections will be required to keep abreast of the drawing of the plan so that any potential problems with too small elections districts may be corrected during the process and not later. Coordination throughout with the departments of elections is mandated so that no last minute changes will have to be enacted.

Full public participation is allowed and facilitated, including access to plans on the web that can be manipulated. All work will be done with public access. Legislators will be allowed to make suggestions in writing or at commission meetings just like any other citizen. Hearings will be held by the Commission in Wilmington and the three counties. Participants could include party committee people as well as voters, and the Commission would urge comments from everyone. Political balance is required, so a great deal of public participation should be helpful in achieving a fair plan. A time limit is set on appealing an enacted plan so that the process will not be held up to the point it destroys the fairness of the election.

A companion bill will be introduced to have the departments of elections study the shape of Census Tracts and current districts before the next redistricting. The purpose of the study will be to attempt to get the Census tracts redrawn to make redistricting easier. Even current law calls for the use of geographic boundaries, but that is not always possible given the lines of current Census districts. A request needs to be made to the Census Bureau to make census enumeration districts lines coincide better with geographical and legal boundaries.

Author: Sen. Peterson

SPONSOR:	Sen. Peterson & Rep. Gilligan
	Sens. Bunting, Sokola, Cloutier, Copeland, Connor, Simpson, Sorenson, Still; Reps. Cathcart, Caulk, Quillen, Keeley, Plant, B. Ennis, Hall-Long