House Resolution 11EX
By: Representatives Sanchez of the 42nd, McQueen of the 61st, Evans of the 57th, Hugley of
the 141st, Frye of the 122nd, and others
A RESOLUTION
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution so as to provide for the creation and
establishment of an independent redistricting commission; to provide for the qualifications
and appointment of members of such commission; to provide for the filling of vacancies on
the commission; to provide for officers, powers, duties, responsibilities, and resources for
such commission; to provide for guidelines and methods for redistricting; to provide that
redistricting for the General Assembly, members of the United States House of
Representatives from this state, and any other elective body for which it is necessary to
apportion the entire State of Georgia into districts shall be done by such commission and not
the General Assembly; to provide for certain duties of the Supreme Court of Georgia with
regard to redistricting; to provide for severability; to provide for certain notices with regard
to amendments to certain provisions of the Constitution; to provide that the number of
members of each house of the Georgia General Assembly shall be fixed by general law under
certain conditions; to provide for related matters; to provide for submission of this
amendment for ratification or rejection; and for other purposes.
BE IT RESOLVED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:
SECTION 1.
Article II of the Constitution is amended by adding a new Section IV to read as follows:
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<ins>"SECTION IV.
INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION
Paragraph I. Creation and duration of existence; purpose. There is established an
Independent Redistricting Commission. The commission shall not have perpetual
existence, but shall only exist when redistricting is necessitated by either a federal
decennial census or by one or more court orders. The commission shall be constituted by
January 1 of each year immediately following the conduct of a federal decennial census,
or as soon as practicable following a relevant court order, and shall not cease to exist before
fulfilling its duties, which include initial Supreme Court review of any plans approved.
Paragraph II. Membership; appointment and qualifications; officers; vacancies;
disqualification from other office. (a) The commission shall be composed of 15
members, who shall be selected as provided in this Paragraph and shall meet the
qualifications herein provided at all times during their tenure. The General Assembly shall
not be authorized to establish additional qualifications for such commissioners.
(b) Each commissioner shall:
(1) Be a registered voter in the State of Georgia;
(2) Not have been any of the following in the last six years:
(A) A candidate for an elective federal, state, or county office or partisan municipal
office;
(B) An elected federal, state, county, or partisan municipal official, to include any
person appointed to such office;
(C) An officer or member of the governing body of a national, state, or local political
party or political body or a federal, state, or local political candidate's campaign
committee;
(D) A paid consultant or employee of a federal, state, or local political candidate's
campaign or of a political committee of any sort;
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<ins>(E) A person required to register as a federal or state lobbyist or an employee of such
a person in that capacity; or
(F) A member of a government body having oversight power or regulatory authority
over the electoral process, including campaign finance;
(3) Not be a spouse, child, or stepchild of any individual disqualified under
subparagraph (b)(2) of this Paragraph or a parent, stepparent, or sibling of any individual
disqualified under subparagraph (b)(2)(A), (b)(2)(B), or (b)(2)(F) of this Paragraph;
(4) Not have voted in a partisan primary or primary runoff in the last three years
inconsistent with his or her declared party affiliation or lack of such affiliation; and
(5) Not otherwise be disqualified from holding office by this Constitution.
(c) No commissioner shall be eligible to seek or be appointed to any state-wide office,
state legislative office, or state judicial office for a five-year period from the date on which
such person began service as a commissioner, nor shall such commissioner be selected as
a member of a government body having oversight power or regulatory authority over the
electoral process, including campaign finance, during such period.
(d) Not later than January 1 of each year in which a federal decennial census is
conducted, the Secretary of State shall cause applications for the office of commissioner
to be made available to the general public. The applications shall be prepared and
circulated in a manner that promotes a diverse and qualified applicant pool reflecting the
diverse demographics and geography of this state, including linguistic diversity. In
addition, by the same date, the Secretary of State shall cause applications to be mailed
to 10,000 registered voters selected at random. The application form shall require
applicants completing such form to:
(1) Submit a complete application;
(2) Attest under oath that such applicants meet the qualifications contained in
subparagraph (b) of this Paragraph and further state that they either affiliate with one of
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<ins>the two political parties with the largest representation in the General Assembly, and if
so, which party, or that they affiliate with neither;
(3) Provide information sufficient to match each applicant to a registered voter in this
state, or otherwise to determine that the applicant is not registered to vote in this state;
(4) Disclose all contractual or other financial interests with this state;
(5) Affirm their willingness to seek consensus and work impartially in pursuit of the
defined criteria, as well as their present willingness to return to service if necessary; and
(6) Disclose all political contributions by each applicant of $250.00 or more made to
candidates or committees active in federal, state, or local political campaigns, including
ballot measure campaigns, within the last ten years; provided, however, that the Secretary
of State shall cause this amount to be adjusted for inflation in the calendar year prior to
each federal decennial census.
(e)(1) The Secretary of State shall accept applications for the office of commissioner
until June 1 of such year and shall group applicants into three pools based on declared
party affiliation or nonaffiliation.
(2) By July 1 of such year, the Secretary of State shall disqualify all applications that
are incomplete or that, based on the information contained in the applications and related
records maintained by the Secretary of State, do not meet the prescribed qualifications
of this Paragraph, and shall promptly notify disqualified applicants of the reason or
reasons for such disqualification. The Secretary of State shall then promptly use a
random mechanism to select 80 applicants from each pool, using accepted statistical
weighting methods to ensure that the pools as closely as possible mirror the geographic
and demographic makeup of the state.
(3) By July 10 of such year, the Secretary of State shall forward the list of all 240
selected applicants to the leaders of the two political parties with the largest
representation in each house of the General Assembly.
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<ins>(4) By August 1 of such year, each of the four party leaders in the General Assembly
may strike up to six applicants, such that a total of 24 applicants may be stricken.
(5) By September 1 of such year, the Secretary of State shall randomly select the
names of three commissioners from those remaining in each pool, such that nine
commissioners in total are so selected. The method of selection shall be demonstrably
random.
(f) The Secretary of State shall call and convene a meeting of the initial nine
commissioners, which shall be held by September 30 of such year. At such meeting, the
initial nine commissioners shall select six additional commissioners by choosing two from
those remaining in each pool. Each selection shall be approved by at least six of their
number, including at least two from each partisan pool and at least one from the
unaffiliated pool.
(g) The Secretary of State shall convene meetings of the commission until the election
of a chairperson, but shall not be entitled to a vote. The first meeting shall be convened no
later than October 15 of such year. The commission shall elect a chairperson from its
membership and shall elect a secretary. It may also elect a vice chairperson from its
membership, who shall not be from the same pool as the chairperson. In the event that a
chairperson or secretary is not elected at the first two meetings of the commission due to
the vote threshold for exercise of powers in Paragraph III of this Section, the commission
may, at its third or a subsequent meeting of such year, elect such official with the
affirmative vote of eight commissioners, including at least one selected from each pool.
If the chairperson is elected by such method, the commission shall also so elect a vice
chairperson from its membership, who shall not be from the same pool as the chairperson.
(h) A commissioner shall vacate office upon the occurrence of any of the following
conditions, but not any others:
(1) His or her death;
(2) His or her written resignation, when received by the Secretary of State;
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<ins>(3) His or her disqualification from holding office under this Constitution;
(4) He or she ceasing to meet the qualifications set forth in this Section; or
(5) After written notice and an opportunity for the commissioner to respond, a vote
of 11 commissioners, including at least one from each pool, finding substantial neglect
of duty, gross misconduct in office, or inability to discharge the duties of office.
In the event of a vacancy in a seat originally filled by random selection, the Secretary of
State shall fill the vacancy by randomly selecting a name from the remaining qualifying
applicants in the same pool from which the commissioner who vacated office was selected,
using a demonstrably random method. In the event of a vacancy in a seat originally filled
by a vote of the nine initial commissioners, the remaining commissioners shall fill the
vacancy by a vote of two-thirds of their remaining number, with the support of at least
three who were selected from each pool.
(i) Following a court order requiring a map that was drawn by the commission to be
redrawn, the chairperson shall reconvene the commission as soon as is feasible; provided,
however, that, if the chairperson fails to call a meeting within ten days, the Secretary of
State shall convene the commission. The commission shall have the same membership as
when it was previously constituted to draw such map, and vacancies shall be handled as
described in this Paragraph, provided that, in the event that more than half of the
commission's membership is vacant, all randomly selected seats shall be filled before
filling any vacancies in the other seats.
(j) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no employer shall discharge, threaten to
discharge, intimidate, coerce, or retaliate against any employee because of the employee's
membership on the commission or attendance or scheduled attendance at any meeting of
the commission.
Paragraph III. Powers and duties; exercise of powers. (a) Except as otherwise provided
in this Section, the commission is vested with the sole power to draw district maps for the
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<ins>Georgia Senate, the Georgia House of Representatives, the United States House of
Representatives, and any other elective body for which it is necessary to apportion the
entire State of Georgia into districts. When constituted as the result of a court order or
orders, the commission shall redraw only those maps directly affected by such court order
or orders and shall attempt to make changes only as required to comply with such order or
orders while satisfying the criteria established in this Section.
(b) The commission shall also have the power to do all things necessary in order to
exercise the above power or to perform its duties, including, without limitation, the power
to make its own rules of procedure, the power to hire staff and to contract, the power to sue
and be sued, the power to retain independent legal counsel, and the power to spend money
from the trust fund established pursuant to Paragraph VI of this Section. Except as
otherwise provided, the commission shall only exercise its powers by the affirmative vote
of at least nine of its members, including at least two members from each of the three
pools; provided, however, that the commission may retain counsel by a vote of eight
members, including at least one from each pool, if it was unable at its preceding meeting
to retain counsel using the regular threshold.
(c) The commission is vested with the following duties:
(1) To draw fair and impartial maps according to the criteria established in this Section,
and no other criteria;
(2) To ensure robust public participation and education regarding redistricting;
(3) To hold at least ten public hearings during a decennial redistricting cycle, or at least
six during a court ordered redistricting cycle, at locations distributed throughout this state,
before releasing its own maps, and to utilize technology to provide for remote public
participation in such hearings and allow members of the public to submit redistricting
plans;
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<ins>(4) To hold six public hearings after releasing its own maps, also allowing for remote
participation, and to maximize the attendance of its own membership at both sets of
public hearings;
(5) To conduct all business and communications in public, except consultation with
counsel, and to make all records to which attorney-client privilege is not applicable
available for public inspection, except as otherwise specified in this Section; and
(6) To provide the public, including via website, with meeting agendas, notices, and
minutes and with pertinent information, including demographic, geographic, and electoral
data, regarding proposed plans and plan components, as well as full legal descriptions by
census block, shapefiles, and maps for all proposed plans, such that any sufficiently
skilled third party can exactly replicate the plans using solely the provided data.
(d) No commissioner shall solicit or engage in private communication with any person
or persons relating to redistricting, and all communications regarding redistricting received
by any individual commissioner shall be records of the commission. Consultation with the
commission's own staff or legal counsel shall not be deemed private communication.
Paragraph IV. Redistricting criteria. (a) The commission shall use the following criteria
in drawing districts and evaluating plans:
(1) Compliance with the United States Constitution, the federal Voting Rights Act
of 1965, as amended, and all applicable federal laws;
(2) Geographic contiguity, provided that an island may be treated as contiguous to the
nearest landmass in its county that is not an island;
(3) Substantial equality of total population, provided that in no event shall the most
populous and the least populous district in any plan differ in population per member by
more than 10 percent of the average population per member, nor shall any plan violate
applicable federal judicial standards regarding equality of population;
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<ins>(4) Provision of equal opportunity for racial and linguistic minorities to participate in
the political process and elect the candidates of their choice, either alone or in coalition
with others;
(5) Preservation of whole communities of interest to the extent possible, with a
community of interest being any group of reasonably geographically proximate
Georgians sharing one or more substantial interests that might reasonably be the subject
of action by the body for which maps are to be drawn, or otherwise sharing a common
socioeconomic or demographic identity; provided, however, that shared political party
affiliation shall not constitute a community of interest;
(6) Respect for boundaries of political subdivisions and voting precincts when
practical, with particular attention to ensuring that such boundaries are not subdivided
into areas small enough to threaten ballot secrecy, provided that in no event shall any
populated census block be split; and
(7) Partisan fairness, to the extent it does not conflict with other criteria, such that all
maps drawn can be expected to, on average, produce political representation reasonably
proportionate to the popular vote in the state.
(b) The commission shall not propose or approve any maps that, as a whole, favor any
political party, political candidate, or incumbent, nor shall it make use of residential
address information of any incumbent federal or state legislator or known or declared
candidate for federal or state legislative office.
Paragraph V. Adoption of maps; dissolution; failure to adopt maps; review of adopted
maps; emergency provisions. (a) No later than October 1 of the year in which a federal
decennial census is conducted, the commission shall adopt redistricting plans for all
districts which it is required and empowered to draw. Each commissioner shall be entitled
to propose one plan per type of district and shall provide an accompanying explanation of
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<ins>how such plan was created. The commission shall provide public notice of each plan that
is to be considered and shall provide at least 45 days for public comment on such plans.
(b) In the event that the commission is unable to adopt a redistricting plan through the
regular exercise of its powers, the commission shall adopt a plan through the following
procedure:
(1) Each commissioner may submit one proposed plan for each type of district to the
full commission for consideration. If such plan has not yet received public comment, it
shall first be submitted for at least 20 days of public comment;
(2) Each commissioner shall rank the plans submitted according to preference. Each
plan shall be assigned a point value inverse to its ranking among the number of choices,
giving the lowest ranked plan one point and the highest ranked plan a point value equal
to the number of plans submitted; and
(3) The commission shall adopt the plan receiving the highest total points and that is
also ranked among the top half of plans by at least three commissioners not affiliated with
the party of the commissioner submitting the plan, or in the case of a plan submitted by
nonaffiliated commissioners, is ranked among the top half of plans by at least three
commissioners affiliated with a party. If plans are tied for the highest point total, the
Secretary of State shall randomly select the final plan from those plans. If no plan meets
the requirements of this subparagraph (b), a panel comprising the Secretary of State, the
state auditor, and the most recently retired Justice of the Supreme Court shall select a plan
from the five highest ranked plans using a verifiably random mechanism, which the
commission shall then be entitled to adopt by the affirmative vote of eight
commissioners.
(c) The Supreme Court shall review all adopted plans for compliance with the criteria
set out in this Section using an abuse of discretion standard, except that a plan randomly
selected from the five highest ranked plans shall be reviewed de novo. Within 30 days of
each plan's adoption, the Supreme Court shall issue a judgment either affirming the plan's
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<ins>compliance or remanding the plan to the commission with instructions as to the specific
deficiencies that must be remedied. Affirmed plans shall be filed with the Secretary of
State within seven days. If a plan is remanded, the commission shall, within 12 days, hold
a public hearing and adopt a new plan remedying the deficiencies, which shall be
resubmitted for immediate Supreme Court review using an abuse of discretion standard.
(d) The Supreme Court shall have original, exclusive jurisdiction in any suit against the
Secretary of State concerning his or her duties in relation to the commission and in any suit
challenging maps adopted by the commission. The Supreme Court shall have original,
exclusive jurisdiction to review the ballot language of any proposed constitutional
amendment modifying this Section. In no event shall any body, except the commission
acting pursuant to this Section, promulgate and adopt a redistricting plan or plans for this
state. In the event that the commission is repeatedly unable to adopt a plan that passes
Supreme Court review by December 15, the Supreme Court shall fashion an appropriate
order directing the commissioners to reach consensus on a plan by January 1.
(e) During a decennial redistricting cycle, in the event that the commission believes it is
infeasible to adopt plans by October 1 for reasons outside of its control, the commission
may, by the affirmative vote of at least 12 commissioners, including at least three from
each pool, extend such deadline, provided that in no event shall it be extended beyond the
second Monday in January of the second year that is subsequent to the federal decennial
census.
(f) A plan affirmed by the Supreme Court shall go into immediate effect to the extent
necessary to hold subsequent elections under that plan but shall not be applied to any
residency requirements for legislators during the term in which the plan is adopted, nor
shall any special election to fill a vacancy be held under such plan before a general election
for the same position has been held under such plan.
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<ins>Paragraph VI. Funding; compensation; indemnification. (a) There is created the
Independent Redistricting Commission Trust Fund. In each fiscal year in which a federal
decennial census is conducted, the General Assembly shall make appropriations to the trust
fund sufficient to fund the commission's operations for at least a single redistricting cycle.
The General Assembly shall make further appropriations to the trust fund as necessary to
ensure continuity of the commission's operations. During any year in which the
commission is required to operate, the General Assembly shall appropriate to the trust fund
at least one-fourth of the general purpose budget for the Secretary of State. The trust fund
shall be reserved for the sole use of the commission, provided that, when the commission
is not currently constituted and circumstances require its constitution, the state treasurer
may authorize disbursements from the trust fund to pay costs associated with constituting
the commission. Within six months of the commission's dissolution for a redistricting
cycle, the state auditor shall review the moneys remaining in the trust fund and shall return
all moneys not necessary for contingencies, such as legal defense and reconvening the
commission, to the general fund of the state treasury. The funds in the trust fund shall not
lapse.
(b) Each commissioner shall receive a salary equal to at least one-fifth of the Governor's
salary, which shall be paid from the trust fund. The State of Georgia shall indemnify
commissioners for costs incurred.
Paragraph VII. Severability; amendment of section. (a) This Section is self-executing.
If a final court decision holds any part or parts of this Section to be in conflict with the
United States Constitution or federal law, this Section shall be implemented to the
maximum extent that the United States Constitution and federal law permit. Any provision
or portion held invalid is severable from the remaining portions of this Section.
(b) Whenever any amendment to this Section is proposed by the General Assembly, or
whenever a new Constitution is proposed for this state, which would substantially modify
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<ins>the provisions of this Section, the ballot on which the question of such amendment is
submitted to the people shall contain the statement: "If adopted, this amendment would
modify the Independent Redistricting Commission previously ratified by the voters of
Georgia."
(c) The Independent Redistricting Commission shall not be subject to the provisions of
Section VII of Article IV."
</ins> SECTION 2.
Article III, Section II of the Constitution is amended by revising Paragraphs I and II as
follows:
"Paragraph I. Senate and House of Representatives. (a) The Senate shall consist of not
more than 56 Senators, each of whom shall be elected from single-member districts.
(b) The House of Representatives shall consist of not fewer than 180 Representatives
apportioned among representative districts of the state.
<ins>(c) The General Assembly shall provide by general law for the number of members of
each house and may amend such law only during the year in which a federal decennial
census is conducted, before April 1 of such year.
</ins> Paragraph II. Apportionment of General Assembly. <del>The General Assembly shall
apportion the Senate and House districts. Such districts shall be composed of contiguous
territory. The apportionment of the Senate and of the House of Representatives shall be
changed by the General Assembly as necessary after each United States decennial census
</del> <ins>Reserved."
</ins> SECTION 3.
The above proposed amendment to the Constitution shall be published and submitted as
provided in Article X, Section I, Paragraph II of the Constitution. The ballot submitting the
above proposed amendment shall have written or printed thereon the following:
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"( ) YES Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to provide for the creation
( ) NO of an independent citizens' redistricting commission composed of Georgia
voters to conduct legislative and congressional redistricting?"
All persons desiring to vote in favor of ratifying the proposed amendment shall vote "Yes."
All persons desiring to vote against ratifying the proposed amendment shall vote "No." If
such amendment shall be ratified as provided in said Paragraph of the Constitution, it shall
become a part of the Constitution of this state.
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