Arkansas Congressional and State Legislative Redistricting Commission Initiative (2020)
| Arkansas Congressional and State Legislative Redistricting Commission Initiative | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 3, 2020 | |
| Topic Redistricting measures | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin Citizens |
The Arkansas Congressional and State Legislative Redistricting Commission Initiative was not on the ballot in Arkansas as an initiated constitutional amendment on November 3, 2020.
Measure design
This measure would have repealed Article 8 of the state constitution, which established a Board of Apportionment consisting of the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General and is responsible for state legislative redistricting. It would also have repealed Arkansas Code Annotated sections 7-2-101 through 7-2-105 in their entirety, which prescribe what counties, voting districts, and precincts belong to a specific Congressional district. As of 2018, Arkansas had four U.S. Congressional districts. The measure would have established a seven-member citizens' redistricting commission that would have been responsible for redistricting Arkansas' state legislative and congressional districts. It would have established qualifying criteria for members and restrictions on prior or current elected officials, candidates, or lobbyists being members; and enact requirements for the district maps.[1][2]
Text of measure
Popular name
The popular name for this initiative would have been as follows:[1]
| “ | The Arkansas Citizens' Redistricting Amendment[3] | ” |
Ballot title
The ballot title for this initiative would have been as follows:[1]
This is an amendment to the Arkansas Constitution that changes the manner for the decennial redistricting of Arkansas Congressional and State legislative districts. The amendment establishes a Citizens' Redistricting Commission (the Commission) consisting of seven members. The amendment repeals Article 8 of the Arkansas Constitution that establishes a Board of Apportionment consisting of the Governor, the Secretary of State and the Attorney General. That Board currently establishes the State legislative districts. The amendment repeals Arkansas Code Sections 7-2-101-105 and removes from the General Assembly the authority to establish the districts for the United States Congress. The amendment provides that one of the members shall be appointed by the Majority Leader of the House of Representatives, one by the Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, one by the Majority Leader of the Senate, and one by the Minority Leader of the Senate. These four members of the Commission shall choose three additional members of the Commission by majority vote or if the Commission is deadlocked by blind selection from a pool of individuals nominated by each commissioner. No more than four of the members of the Commission shall have any political party affiliation as determined by statewide voter registration and the three members elected by the commissioners shall not be affiliated with any political party as determined by statewide voter registration. Each member of the Commission shall be a registered voter in Arkansas for the five years preceding their appointment and have voted in each of the last two statewide general elections. A person is ineligible to serve as a commissioner if the person or his/her immediate family member currently or has at any time during the five years preceding his or her appointment served as an elected or appointed statewide or constitutional officer, a member of the United States Congress, the Arkansas General Assembly or as a city or county official. A person is ineligible to serve as a commissioner if the person currently or at any time during the five years immediately preceding his or her appointment has served as a federal, state or local lobbyist. A person is ineligible to serve as a commissioner if the person currently or at any time during the five years immediately preceding his or her appointment has been an employee of the federal, state or local government, the United States Congress, the Arkansas General Assembly or a constitutional officer. A person who is retired from active duty in any branch of the United States Armed Forces or currently serves or has previously served in the United States Armed Forces Reserve is not ineligible as a result of such military service. A person is ineligible to serve as a commissioner if the person currently or at any time during the five years immediately preceding his or her appointment has been an employee or compensated in any manner by the campaign committee of a candidate for the United States Congress, the Arkansas General Assembly or a statewide office or has been elected or appointed to a position with a national, state or local political party organization in the state, or has been employed or has been compensated in any manner by a national, state, or local political party organization in this state. The appointments to the Commission shall be made between January 15 and Feburary [sic] 1 in years ending in one. At a meeting called by the Secretary of State no later than February 15, the four members shall select within 14 days of the initial meeting by majority vote the three additional members. Five members of the Commission constitue [sic] a quorum and five or more affirmative votes are required for any official action. For any commissioner who does not complete his term, the replacement commissioner shall be appointed in the manner of the commissioner's original appointment. Commissioners shall have a term of office of ten years. In addition to the five-year restrictions on certain public service prior to becoming a commissioner, during the term of office and for three years thereafter a commissioner shall be ineligible for registration as a paid lobbyist or hold any elective or appointed office in the executive or legislative branch of government of this state. The Commission shall establish single-member congressional and legislative districts using the following criteria in the following order or priority: Districts shall be established on the basis of population and shall not vary by more than one percent of the ideal population for such districts, with the ideal population for each district determined by dividing the number of districts to be established into the population of the state, except as required to comply with the criteria following below, United States Constitution and the Federal Voting Rights Act; the districts shall be composed of contiguous territory; the geographic integrity of any city, county, local neighborhood, or community of interest shall be respected; districts shall be reasonably compact. In no case shall a district have a population that varies by more than five percent from the ideal district population nor shall a district have a population that varies by more than one percent from the average district population. The amendment provides that no district shall be drawn to discriminate against or favor a political party, incumbent legislator or member of congress nor be drawn to augment or dilute the voting strength of a group of individuals speaking the same language or racial minority group. The amendment establishes the procedures the Commission must follow for establishing the legislative and congressional districts. The amendment provides that the Commission shall have standing in all legal actions. The amendment provides that the Department of Finance and Administration shall submit to the legislature a reccomendation [sic] for appropriation for adequate redistricting expenses and that the legislature shall make the necessary appropriations by majority vote. The amendment provides that original jurisdiction is vested in the Arkansas Supreme Court to compel the Commission to perform its duties, which is an exception to the State's right to sovereign immunity. |
Full text
The full text of the measure is available here.
Path to the ballot
The state process
In Arkansas, the number of signatures required to qualify an initiated constitutional amendment for the ballot is equal to 10 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election. Proponents must collect signatures equaling at least half of the designated percentage of gubernatorial votes in at least 50 of the state's counties. Signatures remain valid until the date of the next general election following the certification of ballot language. Signature petitions must be submitted four months prior to the election at which the measure is to appear.
The requirements to get initiated constitutional amendments certified for the 2020 ballot:
- Signatures: 89,151 valid signatures were required.
- Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was July 3, 2020.
If the secretary of state certifies that enough signatures were submitted in a petition, the initiative is put on the ballot. If a petition fails to meet the signature requirement, but the petition has at least 75 percent of the valid signatures needed, petitioners have 30 days to collect additional signatures or demonstrate that rejected signatures are valid.
Details about this initiative
- Skip Cook filed this initiative on behalf of Arkansans for Governmental Reform. Attorney General Leslie Rutledge certified the measure's ballot title, clearing it for signature gathering, on July 25, 2018.
- Sponsors did not submit a ballot title to the Secretary of State's office, which was required under Act 376 of 2019.
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Arkansas Attorney General's Office, "Opinion No. 2018-86," accessed August 24, 2018
- ↑ Arkansas Attorney General's Office, "Opinions Search," accessed August 24, 2018
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
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