Redistricting in North Dakota after the 2010 census

Note: Redistricting takes place every 10 years after completion of the United States Census. The information here pertains to the 2010 redistricting process. For information on more recent redistricting developments, see this article.

Redistricting in North Dakota

General information

Partisan control: Republican

Process: Legislature Authority

Deadline: January 2012

Total seats

Congress: 1

State Senate: 47

State House: 94

This article details the timeline of redistricting events in North Dakota following the 2010 census. It also provides contextual information about the redistricting process and census information.

Process

See also: State-by-state redistricting procedures

During the 2010 redistricting cycle, the North Dakota Legislature was responsible for the redistricting process. If a plan was not agreed upon by the Legislature, a federal or state court could draw the lines. The North Dakota Constitution stipulated that the Senate must be composed of between 40 and 54 members. The House had a required composition of between 80 and 180 members. At the beginning of the redistricting process, there were 47 Senate members and 94 House members. A statutory provision provided that any census after 1999 must use 47 and 94 seats.

The North Dakota Constitution provided authority to the Legislature for redistricting in Section 2 of Article IV.

Leadership

A joint committee oversaw redistricting. Members of the Interim Legislative Redistricting Committee were:

Senate Membership

Republicans (5)

• Ray Holmberg, Chairman
• Randel Christmann
• Dwight Cook
• Tony Grindberg
• Jerry Klein
• Stanley W. Lyson

Democrats (2)

• Ryan Taylor
• John Warner

House Membership

Republicans (5)

• Larry Bellew
• William Devlin
• James Kasper
• David Monson
• Mike Nathe

Democrats (2)

• Richard Holman
• Jerome Kelsh

Census results

On March 15, 2011, North Dakota received its local 2010 census data. The data was used to guide the state as it redrew state and local electoral districts. Although North Dakota experienced net growth of approximately 5%, a majority of rural districts lost population.

State legislative redistricting

September 2011: Special session announced

On September 14, 2011, Gov. Jack Dalrymple (R) announced a November 7 special session to tackle state redistricting. The session was expected to last five days and, in addition to redistricting, address disaster relief and a health insurance exchange. Sen. Ray Holmberg (R), chairman of the state's joint redistricting committee, said the committee hoped to have a draft map ready for public comment soon. He added that the plan would keep the number of districts at 47, shifting two districts from rural areas into Fargo and Bismarck.

September 2011: Committee prepares draft map

North Dakota's redistricting committee met on September 16, 2011, to finish a preliminary map of the state’s legislative districts for public review. While the plan primarily affected rural Republicans, Democrats said the plan unfairly targeted Senate Minority Leader Ryan Taylor (D) by pairing him with a fellow Democratic incumbent, David O'Connell. Republicans argued that demographic changes necessitated the move.

October 2011: Committee approves map proposal

On October 12, 2011, the Interim Legislative Redistricting Committee approved new maps for the state's 47 legislative districts. The plan cut rural districts and shifted districts toward urban areas like Fargo and Bismarck. Advocates for rural areas had asked for an increase in the total number of districts to prevent such changes. Due to population shifts, a number of legislators were drawn into the same districts. In the House, the plan drew four Republicans into one district, and three Republicans and one Democrat into another. The full legislature took up the plans in a November 7 special session.

November 2011: Legislative maps approved

On November 8, 2011, the North Dakota Legislative Assembly passed a redistricting bill which redrew the state’s 47 legislative districts. Democrats objected to the map, asking for a new plan for central North Dakota and an increase in the total number of House seats in order to avoid reshaping of rural districts. Both requests were denied. Although Democrats called the plan unfair, Republicans insisted that Democrats were consulted and noted that the plan would force many Republicans to run for re-election earlier than usual. Overall, the plan cut two rural districts and created new districts in Bismarck and Fargo. The plan paired over a dozen incumbents. North Dakota Governor Jack Dalrymple (R) signed the redistricting legislation on November 9.

Legislation

House Bill 1267

HB 1267, signed by Gov. Jack Dalrymple on April 18, 2011, established a special redistricting committee and exempted redistricting plans from the state's open records law. The law also set a deadline (October 31, 2011) for the committee to submit redistricting legislation. In addition, the law directed the governor to call a special session to adopt the state's new maps. Democrats had sought to introduce provisions allowing party leaders to select their respective committee members instead of the Chairman of Legislative Management (House Majority Leader Al Carlson). This proposed amendment was ultimately rejected.

House Concurrent Resolution 3012

HCR3012 would have amended the North Dakota Constitution to mandate that decennial redistricting be controlled by a bipartisan commission rather than the legislature. If passed, the amendment would not have affected 2011 redistricting. The bill was proposed in the House by Corey Mock (D), Lee Kaldor (D), Jerome Kelsh (D), and Ralph Metcalf (D). In the Senate, the bill was proposed by Ryan Taylor (D) and John Warner (D). The billed was voted down on March 31, 2011, 69-25.

Ballot measures

The following measures have been proposed to the North Dakota ballot pertaining to redistricting.

• North Dakota Redistricting Amendment (2010) d Did not make ballot
• North Dakota Redistricting Amendment (2012) d Did not make ballot

Timeline

Consideration of state redistricting plans was expected to take place during a special session in mid-November 2011.

The expected timeline for North Dakota was as follows:

North Dakota 2010 redistricting timeline
Date	Action
December 21, 2010	State informed of number of Congressional seats on the 2010 Census.
March 1, 2011	Expected date to receive complete Census data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
April 1, 2011	Final deadline to receive Census data.
October 31, 2011	Deadline for redistricting committee to draft redistricting legislation.
January 3, 2012.	Deadline for the North Dakota Legislature to have a redistricting plan in place.
June 2012	First primary elections in newly created districts.
November 2012	First general election in newly created legislative and Congressional boundaries.

History

2001 redistricting

At the start of the 2001 redistricting process, the state had 49 legislative districts, each housing one Senator and two Representatives. Multiple bills brought to the floor during the 2000 regular session sought to create single-member seats; none, though, passed.

By October 2001, with a month left, the 15-member redistricting committee had not narrowed down the 11 proposed maps. The four maps that survived the first hearing ranged from 45 to 51 proposed seats.

Midway through October, the Committee finally voted, on a 9-6 party-line split, to cut the legislature down to 47 seats, meaning two Senators and four Representatives would be out of work after the 2002 elections. Some members freely admitted they had voted under duress in recognition of the fact that the state was running out of time. Constitutionally limited to 80 working days each biennium, North Dakota lawmakers had already met in regular session for 77 days. Were they to call themselves back into session, they would have only three days to deliver a finished redistricting plan. However, were Gov. John Hoeven to exercise his right to convene an extraordinary session, no such time limit would apply.

Republican-drawn plans for all the major cities passed the committee unanimously and a Democratic bid to turn the entire matter over to an independent commission in the future failed. A joint effort from American Indian tribes and the ACLU to gain specially drawn districts also failed. The Committee further decided any senator or representative who found themsleves sharing a district with another incumbent after the maps were finalized would have to run in 2002.

The next morning, Gov. Hoeven used an executive order to officially call a special session, set for November 26, 2001. Legislators on both sides spent the next two weeks preparing not only their challenges and amendments to the redistricting map .

On November 29, the 51-district plan failed in committee on an 8-7 vote that crossed party lines and regional interests. A 31-16 Senate vote and a concurring 66-29 vote in the House on November 30 sent the contentious 47 district plan to Gov. Hoeven's desk. He signed it that afternoon.

Deviation from Ideal Districts

2000 Population deviation
Office		Percentage
Congressional Districts		N/A
State House Districts		10.00%
State Senate Districts		10.00%
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.

See also

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

External links

• State Legislative Council Redistricting in North Dakota Report, 2011 (Includes history of ND redistricting)
• State Legislative Council Redistricting in North Dakota Report, 2009