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2004 SESSION

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SB 18 Constitutional amendment; effective dates of legislative and congressional redistricting.

Introduced by: Jay O'Brien | all patrons    ...    notes | add to my profiles

SUMMARY AS INTRODUCED:

Constitutional amendment (voter referendum); effective dates of decennial redistricting measures; vacancies. Provides for a referendum at the November 2004 election on approval of a proposed constitutional amendment to revise provisions concerning the effective date and implementation of decennial redistricting measures. The proposed amendment continues the requirement that decennial reapportionment or redistricting measures shall be enacted in the first year after the decennial census (2011, etc.). It spells out that the new lines will be implemented for the first November general election held just prior to the expiration of the term being served in the year of the redistricting. The new language, in effect, continues the existing practice and understanding that there will be regular November elections from new districts in 2011 for the House of Delegates and Senate, in 2012 for the United States House of Representatives, in 2021 for the House of Delegates, in 2022 for the House of Representatives, in 2023 for the Senate, and so forth. It further provides explicitly that the members in office when a decennial reapportionment law is enacted shall complete their terms of office and continue to represent the districts from which they were elected for the duration of those terms of office.

Another new provision specifies that any vacancy occurring during such terms will be filled from the preexisting district, i.e., the same district that elected the member whose vacancy is being filled.

The proposed amendment continues the present provision that reapportionment laws take effect "immediately" without being subject to the usual requirement for a four-fifths vote in each house of the General Assembly to approve an emergency measure. This exception to the emergency vote requirement remains necessary. There is usually only a short time available to draw new lines after the release of census redistricting data early in the year following the census, and before the nomination and election timetable begins for that year's November election.

If approved by the voters, the amendment will take effect January 1, 2005. See also SJR 6, companion resolution.


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