[EL] Redistricting News from Kentucky
Justin Levitt
levittj at lls.edu
Thu Jan 19 13:21:50 PST 2012
Hi, Josh. I'm working on a short piece about this issue, actually --
and it's one that shows up in any election bridging a redistricting,
with particularly strong consequences in a staggered election bridging a
redistricting, where half the seats are up and half aren't. Which is to
say that it shows up in most state Senate maps around the country (there
are a few states that put every Senator up for election after
redistricting, by shortening some terms to two years).
Let's say that last cycle's version of district 1 represents Lexington,
and district 2 represents Louisville. The new version of district 1
represents Louisville, with Lexington now represented by district 2.
And let's say that Senator Smith, from district 1, is up for election in
2012, and Senator Jones, from district 2, is up for election in 2014.
There are essentially two ways to deal with representation when this
happens, and I'm still knee-deep in research about which states are
which (and would welcome other references). Often, the only way that
the law pinpoints the electorate to which representatives are
responsible is when special elections are held to fill the remainder of
unexpired terms, and the election authorities need to decide where to
hold the special election.
Method #1 is the one you describe. The incumbent Senator follows the
district. So Smith (district 1) now represents Louisville until 2012,
and Jones (district 2) now represents Lexington until 2014, even though
Lexington voters didn't vote for Jones, and Louisville voters didn't
vote for Smith (but get to vote on their new representative earlier).
And I'm under the impression that this is the norm ... though as I said
above, still working out the details. (For example, Indiana
<http://www.indianaeconomicdigest.net/main.asp?SectionID=31&SubSectionID=120&ArticleID=60874>
and Washington
<http://www.atg.wa.gov/AGOOpinions/opinion.aspx?section=topic&id=8608>
apparently work this way as well.)
Method #2 is the alternative (and the way California
<http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_18313476> Senate seats
work). Rather than following the district, the incumbent Senator stays
with their old district geography. So Smith represents Lexington until
2012, and Jones represents Louisville until 2014. The oddity here is
that when Smith's term is up in 2012, the election for his seat will
take place in new district 1, which now covers Louisville. But Jones is
still representing Louisville until 2014, and nobody's representing
Lexington until then. So voters in Louisville get two representatives
from 2012-2014, and voters in Lexington get none in that same period
(though usually, the Senate will divvy up "unrepresented" territory for
purposes of constituent services).
Now, it's relatively rare that the districts change wholesale, but it
certainly happens. More often, parts of the districts shift, but the
districts stay more or less in the same place, so you don't have
enormous pockets of territory that fall into the gap. But in any
redistricting, there will be some voters affected by the change. And
though there are concerns about representation under either system, it's
hard to say that one system is universally better or worse. Some have
said, for example, that under the Kentucky system, even though the
Lexington voters didn't vote for their new representative Jones, Jones
has a natural incentive to do right by his new constituents, so that
he's re-elected in that new district...
Justin
On 1/19/2012 11:20 AM, Josh Douglas wrote:
> There's been some interesting redistricting news out of Kentucky
> today. The state Senate adopted its new redistricting map, with some
> odd changes. Under an informal agreement with the state House, each
> House will agree to the other side's redistricting, so this will take
> effect in a matter of days.
>
> What the Senate did was shift various districts around the state.
> However, the legislation has each current senator follow their
> district -- even to another part of the state.
>
> For example, Kathy Stein currently represents Lexington in the 13th
> District. Her term is up at the end of the year, and she filed to run
> for re-election in the 13th District. But now where she lives is
> going to become the 4th District. The 13th District is being moved to
> a different part of the state. But, for the rest of her term, she
> will still "represent" the (new) 13th District, even though it's in an
> entirely different region. The senator from the 4th District in
> Western Kentucky will now represent Lexington, and he's not up for
> reelection until 2014. So if Stein wants to keep representing the
> 13th District she'll have to move. Otherwise, she'll be out of office
> for two years and then can run in the new 4th District. And a Senator
> who lives over an hour way from the (new) 4th District will now
> represent voters in Lexington until 2014.
>
> Obviously, there were partisan reasons for these moves. But I haven't
> heard of other states that have the incumbents move with their
> numbered districts. It would seem to present some kind of
> right-to-vote problem, because voters did not actually vote for the
> representative who now represents them. There could also be an equal
> protection concern: voters in Lexington were supposed to vote for
> their Senator in 2012, but now, because they are being represented by
> the prior 4th District Senator, they will not vote again until 2014.
>
> Is anyone aware of other states that have this kind of process?
>
> The local paper's coverage of this is here:
> http://www.kentucky.com/2012/01/19/2033524/plan-would-redistrict-lexingtons.html#storylink=omni_popular#wgt=pop
>
> Josh
>
> --
> Joshua A. Douglas
> Assistant Professor of Law
> University of Kentucky College of Law
> 620 S. Limestone
> Lexington, KY 40506
> (859) 257-4935 <tel:%28859%29%20257-4935>
> joshuadouglas at uky.edu <mailto:joshuadouglas at uky.edu>
>
>
>
>
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--
Justin Levitt
Associate Professor of Law
Loyola Law School | Los Angeles
919 Albany St.
Los Angeles, CA 90015
213-736-7417
justin.levitt at lls.edu
ssrn.com/author=698321
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