Redistricting in New Jersey

New Jersey
General Information
Process:	New Jersey Redistricting Commission
Deadline:	April 3, 2011 for state legislative districts. January 17, 2012 for congressional redistricting.
Total Seats to be Drawn
Congress:	12
State Senate:	40
State House:	80
Other States Redistricting Pages
Alabama · Alaska  · Arizona · Arkansas · California · Colorado  · Connecticut  · Delaware · Florida  · Georgia  · Hawaii  · Idaho  · Illinois  · Indiana  · Iowa  · Kansas  · Kentucky  · Louisiana  · Maine  · Maryland  · Massachusetts  · Michigan  · Minnesota  · Mississippi · Missouri  · Montana · Nebraska · Nevada  · New Hampshire  · New Jersey  · New Mexico  · New York  · North Carolina · North Dakota  · Ohio  · Oklahoma · Oregon · Pennsylvania  · Rhode Island  · South Carolina · South Dakota  · Tennessee · Texas  · Utah · Vermont  · Virginia  · Washington  · West Virginia · Wisconsin · Wyoming

Redistricting in New Jersey is done by a redistricting commission. The New Jersey Redistricting Commission is responsible for drawing the state's legislative and congressional boundaries. New Jersey is one of 13 states to use a commission-based redistricting method. New Jersey's redistricting commission was established in 1995, when voters approved Public Question 1.

Process

The New Jersey Redistricting Commission is responsible for redistricting. This is one of 11 commissions nationwide that is responsible for redistricting. This redistricting commission is comprised of 10 members, chosen by the following:

• 5 by the Chairperson of the state Democratic Party
• 5 by the Chairperson of the state Republican Party

If a plan is not in place, the New Jersey Supreme Court selects an 11th member.

State law does not require the Redistricting Commission to hold public hearings. The Commission did hold public hearings and launched a website giving the public a chance to offer input.

Leadership

2011 Legislative Commission members

Figure 1: This map shows the New Jersey Congressional Districts after the 2000 census.

In 2011, the 11 members of the New Jersey Redistricting Commission for legislative boundaries were:
Democrats

• John Wisniewski (Chair), State assemblyman
• Sheila Oliver, State assemblywoman
• Joseph Cryan, State assemblyman
• Paul Sarlo, State senator
• Nilsa Cruz-Perez, Former assemblywoman

Republicans

• Jay Webber (Chair), State assemblyman
• Kevin O'Toole, State senator
• George Gilmore
• Bill Pallatucci
• Irene Kim Asbury

The five Democrats and five Republicans worked together on a redistricting plan. An 11th member -- Alan Rosenthal -- was appointed by State Supreme Court Justice Stuart Rabner on March 3, 2011, after Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a plan. Rosenthal has a history of involvement in the redistricting process, having played the role of tie-breaking member in the previous 2 redistricting processes.

Half of New Jersey's voters are "unaffiliated" -- which led to some speculation as to why there were no unaffiliated representatives on the commission.

The commission was to vote on a decision for legislative districts at Noon on April 3, 2011 at the Heldrich Hotel.

2011 Congressional Commission members

The Democrats and Republicans each appointed 6 members to the commission on June 15, 2011. Those 12 members had until July 15, 2011 to choose an independent, 13th member. Otherwise, the New Jersey Supreme Court was to appoint the final commissioner, who would serve as chair.

Democrats

• Michael Baker, Former Assemblyman
• Nilsa Cruz-Perez Former Assemblyman
• Edward Farmer, former chief of staff for former Congressman Bill Pascrell
• Jeannine Frisby LaRue, worked in former Governor Jon Corzine
• Joseph Roberts, Jr., former Assembly speaker
• Philip Thigpen, Essex County Democratic chairman

Republicans

• Caroline Casagrande, current Assemblywoman
• Michael DuHaime, advisor to Governor Chris Christie
• Sherine El-Abd, former official at Department of Community Affairs
• Aubrey Fenton, former Burlington County freeholder
• Eric Jaso, Morris County attorney
• M. Susan Sheppard, former Cape May County freeholder

13th member

• John Farmer Jr., former Attorney General

Farmer was chosen as the tiebreaker by the 12 original commissioners. The appointment was made on July 18, 2011. Farmer served as counsel to Alan Rosenthal during the state legislative redistricting process.

Census Results

New Jersey lost a congressional seat in the 2010 Census. This reduced the state from 13 to 12 congressional districts.

The State of New Jersey received its local Census data on February 3, 2011. The five most populous cities in the 2010 Census were Newark with 277,140, Jersey City with 247,597, Paterson with 146,199, Elizabeth with 124,969 and Edison with 99,967. When compared to the 2000 Census, Newark grew by 1.3 percent, Jersey City grew by 3.1 percent, Elizabeth grew by 3.7 percent, and Edison grew by 2.3 percent. Paterson lost 2 percent of its population compared to the 2000 Census.

Congressional Maps

General Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D) discusses the early stages of the congressional redistricting process.

Despite New Jersey using a bi-partisan commission for redistricting, party politics threatened to affect the final drawing of the state's congressional districts. Republican Congressmen Jon Runyan and Leonard Lance were concerned that they could go up against another incumbent if they were redistricted out. Both Congressmen urged the New Jersey Redistricting Commission to remove a congressional district from Northeast New Jersey instead of targeting their districts. Congressman Lance told The Hill that his Northwestern New Jersey district did not experience population loss in comparison to the Northeastern part of the state. Despite Democrats holding a one seat edge on congressional districts, Lance was hopeful that the bi-partisan commission would properly redraw the maps without regard to political preferences. The Hill also reported on January 11, 2011, that New Jersey's redistricting commission has had a history of protecting incumbents at the expense of congressional members with less seniority.

Process begins

On September 6, 2011 the congressional redistricting commission kicked off its task of redrawing New Jersey’s 12 U.S. House districts -- down from the previous total of 13. Commission chairman John Farmer Jr. -- the independent -- said the process would likely go down to the wire as commissioners negotiated over which district was eliminated. There were three public hearings held in the following months, the first on September 22.

Public input

In October 2011, public hearings were held across the state. Some of the opinions:

• Local elected officials of District 5 and 7 testified to preserve those districts in order to protect incumbents.
• One Congressional candidate said the new districts should encourage competitive races and not function as safe havens for incumbents.
• A college student testified that the longest-serving incumbents should be protected because they know how to work the system in Washington and obtain the most federal money for New Jersey.

Map approved

On December 23, 2011, the commission approved a new map that placed incumbents Steve Rothman (D) and Scott Garrett (R) in the same district. Analysis showed that the new district created a partisan advantage for the GOP. Independent chair John Farmer cast his vote with the Republican-favored map.

State Legislative Maps

Republican and Latino alliance

New Jersey's population as of 2011 was 18 percent Latino. Martin Perez, president of the Latino Leadership Alliance, said the seven Latino state lawmakers proved there was under-representation of Latinos in state government. During the 2000 redistricting process, Democrats engaged in the process of "cracking," splitting minority Latinos into multiple districts, which diluted their voting power. In 2011, some Latino groups partnered with Republicans to promote more Latino-centric districts. Perez accused Democrats of packing a large proportion of minority citizens into one district.

In some possible maps, Republicans and Latinos formed an alliance that would create more Latino-heavy districts in order to elect more Latino legislators, but would also reduce the total number of districts where Latinos have a large presence. Hispanics surpassed blacks as the second-largest demographic in New Jersey. One map that surfaced in late February showed three majority Hispanic districts in Essex, Hudson and Union counties. That map also combined Newark and Elizabeth, which could have pit incumbent Democratic senators Raymond Lesniak and Teresa Ruiz against one another in the next election. The Montclair NAACP opined that it planned to consider challenging the legislative maps if minorities did not have proper representation.

Public input debate

Both Democrats and Republicans emphasized the importance of public hearings in the redistricting debate. However, there was disagreement over the method by which public input should be acquired. Republicans scheduled four public hearings that they invited Democratic leaders to attend. Meanwhile, Democratic chairman John Wisniewski said advice they received indicated having a structure in place before holding public sessions was imperative.

Jay Webber (R) discusses redistricting.

The four Republican hearings were scheduled for the following dates:

• Wednesday, January 12 at 6 pm, Rutgers Law School, Newark
• Thursday, January 13 at 6 pm, Hudson County Community College, Jersey City
• Tuesday, January 18 at 6 pm, Rowan University, Glassboro
• Thursday, January 20 at 6 pm, Ocean County Administration Building, Toms River

Wisniewski responded to Webber's letter, emphasizing that the Republican Committee chair did not have "authority to unilaterally call Apportionment Commission public hearings."

Both sides indicated they would not attend the meetings being pushed by the other side.

A editorial written by the The Courier-Post on January 21, 2011, argued that all meetings held by the redistricting commission should be open to the public. The editorial also argued that sitting lawmakers should not be on the state's redistricting commission. The newspaper felt that the redistricting process should be owned by the people of New Jersey and not by the Republican or Democratic Parties. MyCentralJersey argued for redistricting in the Garden State to "be a non-partisan effort" in a editorial written on January 19, 2011 .

Jersey City and Newark

For many years, Jersey City and Newark have been split into three different legislative districts. This means the two cities had three State Senators and six Assembly members represent some of their residents.

In 2011, there was the possibility of Jersey City and Newark no longer being split-up into more than two districts. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2009 that a district must have more than 50 percent of its voters from minority groups in order to be protected by the Voting Rights Act. Both Republicans and Democrats agreed that it would be hard to justify keeping Jersey City and Newark split into more than two districts. One example was State Senator Richard Codey, who was faced with a loss of support from urban voters that backed him for many years and a re-election bid in a more suburban district, which did not come to pass.

Commission members hinted that Jersey City and Newark, which each had three legislative districts, would be pared to two districts apiece. Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D) said the reduced populations in these areas of the state were the main factor in the likely reorganization. Each district was required to be roughly 220,000 citizens in size. "The map we have now is not a legal one. We want to draw a map that's legal . . . fair, and constitutional," said Kim Asbury, a Republican attorney who sat on the commission.

Legislative district shifts

North to South

With state officials preparing to receive population data to create new districts, a possibility existed that a entire state legislative district could move from Northern to Southern New Jersey. Republican and Democratic negotiators could have moved a district from the Northeastern portion of the state to the Central or Southern regions in order to balance out population shifts. The possible areas that could receive a new district were Ocean and Burlington counties.

The largest population growth occurred in central New Jersey. In particular, the 30th Legislative District was now 23 percent above the ideal district level. Joseph Malone, III (R) -- one of 2 assemblymen from that district -- said that the last redistricting map skewed power in favor of northeastern legislators. Additionally, districts in Ocean, Atlantic, Gloucester and Monmouth counties were overpopulated by at least 7 percent, while Essex, Hudson, Passaic and Mercer counties were underpopulated.

Third and First Districts

One report speculated that some municipalities in Cumberland County could move from the Third legislative district to the First. The Third District's post-census population is 235,440, which is 15,740 above the target population of 219,700 per district. Sam Fiocchi, who filed to run as a Republican for the First District Assembly seat, said, "We don’t know who’s going to be in what district when it’s all done. Everything’s still gray."

23rd District

Some speculation hinted at the shrinking of the 23rd legislative district, which includes Warren County and most of Hunterdon County. Census figures showed population growth of about 6,300 in each county. State assemblyman John DiMaio (R) said the district would likely need to give up some population because it was larger than the surrounding districts.

Meetings

January 29, 2011

This map displays the 40 legislative districts after redistricting in 2001.

The 10 members of the New Jersey Redistricting Commission held their first public meetings on January 29, 2011, in Camden and Toms River.

During the first of two meetings in Camden, commission members debated the merits of adding an 11th tie-breaking member to be included in the early stage of meetings. Democrats stressed that if a 11th member was added, it would allow the additional person to have adequate time to consider map configurations. John Wisniewski, leader of the Democratic redistricting team, said, "we think it's essential, especially in the time frame we’re working with, have the involvement of the 11th member, who will almost certainly cast the tie-breaking vote."

Ingrid Reed of the Rutgers-Eagleton Institute of Politics testified that 37 out of 40 legislative districts were not competitive under the current redistricting plan. Reed preferred to see the maps drawn to ensure that more districts have competitive races in the future.

After the first meeting, it was reported that Democrats and Republicans agreed on adding an 11th member -- Alan Rosenthal, a Rutgers University public policy professor.

In addition, state senator Donald Norcross (D) and state assemblyman Angel Fuentes (D) described the Fifth Legislative district as diverse in a way that ensures "lively debate and creative solutions of problems." That district was 57 percent White, 26 percent African-American and 17 percent Hispanic. Norcross and Fuentes said that district should serve as a model for the other 39 districts.

• [North Jersey.com "N.J. redistricting commission holds third public hearing," February 9, 2011]
• Meeting Transcript
• Public Testimony

February 9 and 13, 2011

Additional public hearings were held on February 9, 2011 in Newark and February 13, 2011 in Jersey City.

More than 150 people came out to the Newark meeting on February 9, 2011. Among the topics discussed was Latino representation in the Senate and Assembly.

The full transcripts and testimony's from the February 9 and February 11 meetings are available below:

• February 9, 2011 transcript
• February 9, 2011 public testimony
• February 13, 2011 transcript
• February 13, 2011 public testimony

March 11, 2011

The apportionment commission -- now complete with its 11th member, Alan Rosenthal -- held a public meeting in Atlantic City in front of 100 people. One request at the meeting came from the Hispanic community, which pointed to its concentration of population in the Vineland and Atlantic City area as reason to create a majority-minority district. Atlantic City Councilman Moisse Delgado said at the moment the Hispanic population was split between the 1st and 2nd districts. The meeting was the sixth public forum held in the state.

March 16, 2011

The commission held its final public meeting on March 16, before it spent two weeks deliberating the final map. Among the topics covered in the last meeting:

• How to increase Hispanic representation
• A plan to create three districts with populations that are 25 percent Asian
• Creating more majority-minority Hispanic districts

GOP, Tea Party, and Redistricting

The Tea Party played a role in how the New Jersey's political boundaries were re-drawn. Tea Party groups around the state expressed their views on the topic leading up to 2011. The Tea Party viewed their biggest obstacle to success in "safe" congressional districts like Frank Pallone's. Tea Party candidate Anna Little challenged Pallone in 2010 and was defeated by 11 percent.

Most of New Jersey's congressional districts did not have contested races. Tea Party groups demanded the Redistricting Commission to create more competitive districts. Dwight Kehoe of the Bayshore Tea Party Group led a redistricting committee within his organization that aimed to stop gerrymandering.

State Sen. Kevin O'Toole was a guest at the Essex County Tea Party Coalition's meeting on January 24, 2011. The Senator explained the ramifications of redistricting with Tea Party supporters. O'Toole said to the group: "I’m on the state redistricting committee. We’re hoping to divide the 40 districts as evenly as is humanly possible."

The Senator also said, "If history's our teacher, the five Democrats and five Republicans will not agree." If a 11th member of the Redistricting Commission was chosen by the New Jersey Supreme Court, O'Toole was optimistic that it would be favorable to the GOP. Senator O'Toole encouraged activists to get involved in the redistricting process.

O'Toole also spoke to the West Bergen Tea Party on February 8, 2011. He said he hoped to avoid a duplication of what happened in 2001, which he characterized as an "unconstitutional" redistricting that favored Democrats. O'Toole believed some Republicans were more interested in holding their seat then advancing the good of their party or state.

Dems blast GOP "shadow group"

Senator Loretta Weinberg (D) criticizes a Republican fundraising organization.

Democratic lawmakers called on Republicans to disclose donors of a private group bankrolling efforts to draw more favorable legislative boundaries for the GOP on February 2, 2011. Each party is given $500,000 in public funding to begin tackling the redistricting process. While Democrats publicly stayed within that budget, Republicans sought outside funding to bolster their process.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D) along with Assemblypersons Bonnie Watson Coleman (D) and Nellie Pou (D) accused The Center for a Better New Jersey of avoiding pay-to-play laws by keeping their donors and spending a secret.

The group is a 501(c)4 organization and is not required to disclose their donors. The organization was formed by Thomas Kean (R), Senate minority leader, and Alex DeCroce (R), Assembly minority leader.

Competitive Districts

According to Ingrid Reed, formerly of the Eagleton Institute of Politics, only three to five state legislative races in any given year are truly competitive. The rest of the seats are safely Democratic or safely Republican. Bill Schluter, a former Republican state senator, said more competitive districts would attract better candidates and incentivize lawmakers to pay more attention to local constituents. In New Jersey's 40 legislative districts, only two -- District 12 and 14 -- saw an average margin of victory for candidates of under 10 percent during the past 4 elections.

During the first election after the 2000 redistricting, the controlling party changed hands in 7 out of 40 districts.

"The map that was passed 10 years ago was unfair and unconstitutional," said Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie.

11th Commission Member

Figure 2: This map was submitted by the Bayshore Tea Party in March 2011 to the redistricting commission for consideration in redrawing the state legislative districts.

On March 3, 2011, the commission reached a stalemate, which dictated that an 11th member would be appointed. For the third consecutive decade, Alan Rosenthal was chosen as the tie-breaking member. Democrats and Republicans could not agree on a map, in large part due to disagreements over how to address minority representation. Republicans pushed for majority-minority districts, in essence packing the minority voters. Democrats were in favor of cracking -- spreading out the minority blocs. Ingrid Reed, recently retired from the Rutgers-Eagleton Institute of Politics, said the final member is not simply a tiebreaker, but rather, a mediator. "The 11th member becomes a member and is part of the negotiation, is part of providing information as well as listening, coalescing, and so on. I think the public has been led to believe, from things I've been reading recently, that this person walks in, says, 'Show me what you've got, and I'll pick this one.' And I think it is a much more sophisticated process," Reed said.

Governor Chris Christie called the 2001 maps unconstitutional, pointing to the fact that Republicans received more overall votes in the prior election yet wewillre still in the minority in the Senate and General Assembly.

On February 26, Rosenthal met individually with the Democratic and Republican commissioners to begin discussing his role and how the process would advance. "This may come as a big surprise. Republicans seem to want a map that advantages Republicans and Democrats seem to want a map that advantages Democrats. But we have in the United States and New Jersey a competitive two-party system. And it’s understandable that the two parties compete in the processes of redistricting and reapportionment," Rosenthal said after the first official meeting that he attended. While Rosenthal said he hoped to see a compromise map, he says if no consensus can be reached he will ultimately choose one party's map.

According to an alleged memo released by Rosenthal to the commission, his standards for a fair and Constitutional map appeared to favor Democrats. In a public news conference, Rosenthal said he believed the state districts should not deviate in size by more than 5 percent (after 2001 it was 7.5 percent). Another of his priorities was continuity of representation, in other words, maintaining as much familiarity for incumbents with their districts as possible.

The nine outlined priorities from Rosenthal were:

1. Create population equality between districts, preferably with no more than a 5 percent population deviation
2. Avoid splitting municipalities between two legislative districts
3. Keep districts contiguous
4. Keep districts as compact as possible
5. Preserve "communities of interest"
6. Maintain continuity of representation for most voters -- in essence allowing incumbents to keep as many of their constituents as possible
7. Preserve or slightly increase the number of competitive districts where both parties have a reasonable ability to win seats.
8. Provide opportunities for minority representation
9. Promote partisan fairness

Likely court challenge

Early expectation was that whichever political party lost in the process would eventually legally challenge the maps after they were finalized. This threatened a challenge to adhering to the schedule for Senate and Assembly elections in 2011. The primary was scheduled for June 7.

Governor Christie Involvement

Governor Chris Christie (R) reportedly made an appearance at some of the final redistricting hearings at the end of March -- an action that drew the ire of some Democratic legislators over the interference of the governor in a legislative process. John Wisniewski, New Jersey Democratic State Committee Chairman, said: "I don’t think we should be surprised that Gov. Christie has injected himself in this legislative task. I don’t think it helps the process, and it dispels any reasonable doubt as to who’s calling the shots on the Republican side of this commission. As for us, we’ll continue to abide by the state constitution and the guidance of the 11th member." Additionally, one newspaper columnist called Christie's appearance "unprecedented."

Tea Party map

Figure 3: This map was submitted by the New Jersey Legislative Redistricting Coalition in March 2011 to the redistricting commission for consideration in redrawing the state legislative districts.

In late March, Tea Party members submitted their own version of a new legislative map to the 11-member commission (See Figure 2). Dubbing it, "The People's Map," Bayshore Tea Party members said their version was pure and constitutional. "We prepared our map irrespective of partisan interests and for all the people of the State of New Jersey," said tea party activist Sean Spinello, the mapmaker, in a letter to independent commission member Alan Rosenthal.

New Jersey Legislative Redistricting Coalition Map

In late March 2011, the New Jersey Legislative Redistricting Coalition submitted a map for consideration to the redistricting commission (See Figure 3 for the map).

Democratic map leaked

As the days dwindled down before the deadline for the commission to complete a new map, early reports showed a large disconnect between the Democratic and Republican plans. One leaked proposal by Democratic commission members during the final week of March 2011 sent sparks through the state as it was revealed that several Democratic incumbents would be pitted against one another. The brunt of much of that criticism was received by Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who is heading the Democratic redistricting effort. "He's not serving the party, he's serving himself," said senator Joseph Vitale (D). The incumbents in the proposed map who would face one another were:

• Joseph Vitale against Senate Majority Leader Barbara Buono (D). Meanwhile, Wisniewski would then be living in a district with no incumbent senator.
• John Girgenti (D) against Robert Gordon (D) for a Bergen County Senate district
• Richard Codey (D) against Joseph Pennacchio (D) in a district representing Essex and Morris counties.

Republican map leaked

Reports emerged during the final week of March of the Republicans' final proposals, which also put several Democratic incumbents against one another. It also would have moved several Republican members of the General Assembly into the same districts. Some of the alleged new matchups would have pitted the following incumbents in the same district:

• Linda Greenstein (D) against Shirley Turner (D) in a Senate district.
• Raymond Lesniak (D) against Nicholas Scutari in a Senate district.
• Paul Sarlo (D) against Nicholas Sacco (D) in a Senate district.
• Cleopatra Tucker (D), Grace Spencer (D), Albert Coutinho (D) and Jason O'Donnell (D) all placed in a General Assembly district.
• Denise Coyle (R), Erik Peterson (R) and John DiMaio (R) all placed in a General Assembly district.
• Patrick Delany (R) would have moved into a district represented by Assemblymen Jack Conners (D-Camden), Herbert Conaway, Jr. (D-Burlington) and Senator Diane Allen (R).

Final Legislative Map

This is the final map as approved by the New Jersey redistricting commission. These districts will be in place until 2020.

The 11th commission member -- Rutgers professor Alan Rosenthal -- was unable to get the 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans to agree on a compromise map. Therefore, he had to choose which map he would cast his tie-breaking vote in favor of. Rosenthal went with the Democrats' map, stating that it "reflected the current distribution of partisan preferences in New Jersey."

General Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D), co-chair of the commission, said that the population deviation in districts was less than in previous redistricting maps. "It’s a pretty good day for us, and not so good for the governor, who put a lot on the line," Wisniewski said. Wisniewski is referring to Governor Christie's late involvement in the process, where he attended several meetings to vouch for his preferences.

However, General Assemblyman Jay Webber (R), chair of the Republican members of the commission, voiced both displeasure and optimism with the final map -- although he would not discount a possible lawsuit. "We are very disappointed with Dr. Rosenthal's decision. We were very sure that we have the better map. And while we didn't get the map that we wanted, the map that was ultimately produced is better than the one that exists today. Even though we didn't get the map New Jersey deserves, we're getting something that Republicans can run in and win. The new map could force at least 6 retirements or re-locations of current legislators. Two Senate districts pit two incumbents against one another.

Among the changes to the map:

• Somerset County would now be split among four districts. Before, it was in two.
• The new 12th district included parts of Monmouth, Ocean, Burlington and Middlesex counties.

Legal issues

See also: Redistricting lawsuits relating to the 2010 Census

Bayshore Tea Party suit

On April 21, 2011, the Bayshore Tea Party filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new state legislative districts. The suit was joined by 38 other plaintiffs from 21 counties. The predominant allegation was that southern districts were generally larger than legislative districts in the northern part of New Jersey. Also, the splitting of Newark and Jersey City from three districts to two was detailed in the suit as being unconstitutional.

On August 31, 2011, that lawsuit was thrown out by Judge Linda Feinberg. In her 80-page ruling, Feinberg said the math used by the Tea Party group was flawed.

History

Deviation from "Ideal Districts"

2000 Population Deviation
Office		Percentage
Congressional Districts		0.00%
State House Districts		1.83%
State Senate Districts		1.83%
Under federal law, districts may vary from an 'Ideal District' by up to 10%, though the lowest number achievable is preferred. 'Ideal Districts' are computed through simple division of the number of seats for any office into the population at the time of the Census.

Constitutional explanation

The New Jersey Constitution provides authority for the creation of and details the duties of an Apportionment Commission in Section III of Article IV.

See also

• State Legislative and Congressional Redistricting after the 2010 Census
• State-by-state redistricting procedures

External links

• Rutgers University, Center for Government Services "Redistricting New Jersey after the 2010 Census," March 2008
• Official New Jersey Apportionment Commission Website