Last reviewed February 2007
Resources on Minnesota Issues
Redistricting 2000
This guide is compiled by staff at the Minnesota Legislative Reference
Library on a topic of interest to Minnesota legislators. It is designed
to provide an introduction to the topic, directing the user to a variety
of sources, and is not intended to be exhaustive. In particular, it
is focused on items available in the Legislative Reference Library.
Congressional Reapportionment
"Reapportionment is the process of reassigning a given number of seats
in a legislative body to established districts, usually in accordance
with an established plan or formula. The number and boundaries of the
districts do not change, but the number of members per district does."
From How
to Draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up in Court by Peter
Wattson, Minnesota Senate, Senate Counsel and Research, 2009.
According to the U.S. Constitution, the Census has one fundamental purpose:
to ensure that the representation of each state is apportioned fairly in the 435
member U.S. House of Representatives according to population. Each ten years the
U.S. Census Bureau, part of the U.S. Department of Commerce, conducts a census
to determine the population of each state, and then calculates the number of representatives
based on a method of equal proportions. The representation of each state must
reflect the relative size of its population as compared to other states. The official
state population counts from the 2000 Census, and the number of representatives
apportioned to each state, must be reported to the president by December 31, 2000.
The counts
were released on December 28, 2000. Minnesota has had 8 representatives since
1960. Since our state has had a fairly strong rate of growth, roughly approximating
the national rate, Minnesota retained its eight seats. Reapportionment does not
affect the U.S. Senate in which each state has two senators, regardless of population.
State Redistricting
"Redistricting is the process of changing district boundaries. The number
of members per district does not change, but the districts' boundaries do."
(From How
to Draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up in Court by Peter Wattson,
Minnesota Senate, Senate Counsel and Research, 2009.) Each of Minnesota's
67 Senate districts includes within its boundaries two House districts, a total of 201 districts.
Tom Gillaspy, Minnesota's State Demographer, describes the next steps of redistricting very well
in his Fact Sheet on
Reapportionment and Redistricting.
"Once reapportionment has been determined, the next step is redistricting.
Since the earliest days of the nation, the state legislatures have been responsible
for redrawing the boundaries of both congressional and legislative districts to
reflect population shifts. A series of court actions during the 1960s and 70s
reinforced the requirement for redistricting each decade and established that
the size of the districts be based on population. During March 2001, the Minnesota
State Legislature will receive the census data necessary to redraw the state's
eight congressional districts and 201 legislative districts. The data will include
a count of the total population and population age 18 and older by detailed race
and Hispanic ethnicity, by census block, census tract, precinct or voting district,
city and township, county, and a number of other specialized geographic entities.
Work is already underway to have computer and technical resources ready for the
legislators to draw boundaries for the new districts. Their plans will ultimately
take the form of bills for legislative passage. Once the Legislature has passed
a redistricting bill, the Governor will have the option of signing it or vetoing
it. If he signs the bill, redistricting has been accomplished. If he vetoes the
bill, the Legislature might vote to override the veto. If the veto withstands
an override attempt, a new bill must be written, passed and sent to the Governor."
As redistricting bills with plans were introduced during the 2001 Minnesota
legislative session, maps of the proposed districts were made available on the
Legislature's GIS
website. The Web-based software chosen to generate the various redistricting proposals of legislative staff,
Governor's staff, and many local governments, was Maptitude.
Additional description of the Legislature's redistricting computer systems is
detailed in the Minnesota
Redistricting System Profile. A Senate Counsel report, Public
Access to Redistricting Data in Minnesota, provides details on Minnesota's
open records law and how the Minnesota Legislature makes redistricting data available
to the public.
Data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau from the 2000 Census included more
detailed race and ethnicity categories than previous censuses, and also reported
people listing multiple ethnicities. As described in the primer, Use
of Racial Data in Redistricting, "The Subcommittee's redistricting
system will include all 504 categories of racial and Spanish heritage data, real
and adjusted."
Governor Ventura was interested in helping the Legislature create an even-handed
plan with politically competitive districts. Dean Barkley, Director of Minnesota
Planning, chaired an 11-member Governor's Citizen Advisory Commission on Redistricting.
The group included representatives of the four major political parties, Common
Cause, the League of Women Voters, and four additional members.
Drawing congressional and legislative district boundaries is a difficult political
process. Ideally, staff hired by the four legislative caucuses (House Republican
Caucus, House DFL Caucus, Senate Republican Caucus, and the Senate DFL Caucus)
draft proposed redistricting plans and come to consensus on a plan that meets
the technical requirements of law. This plan must be approved and signed by the
Governor and must also stand up to any court challenges. Principles and guidance
for drawing a successful plan are found in a Senate Counsel treatise, How
to Draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up in Court. Citations to
relevant constitutional provisions, state law, and useful background statistics
are compiled in a Minnesota
Redistricting Profile.
Role of the Courts
"Where the majority has gone too far, or where partisan differences
between the two houses of a state legislature, or between the legislature and
the governor, look like they may prevent the legislature from enacting a redistricting
bill in time for the general election in the year ending in two, any resident
of a mal-apportioned district may bring suit in state or federal court and ask
the court to correct an enacted plan or adopt a plan if none has been enacted.
A federal court must defer to a state court, and both must defer to a legislature
that is actively engaged in adopting a plan, but if the legislature fails to meet
reasonable deadlines imposed by the court, the court may impose a redistricting
plan of its own, to be effective until adoption of a valid plan by the legislature."
(From: Reapportionment
and Redistricting in the United States of America by Peter Wattson, Senate
Counsel and Research, 2000.)
Minnesota's congressional and legislative plans have often been referred to
the courts. (See the History
of Minnesota Redistricting timetable and Resources
on Minnesota Issues: Redistricting 1990.) For background on the roles
of state courts and federal courts in redistricting litigation, see Chapter V,
Prepare
to Defend Your Plan in Both State and Federal Courts, from the treatise How
to Draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up in Court by Peter Wattson.
New Congressional and Legislative districts must be determined early enough
to give sufficient time to prepare for the state primary elections in November
of the year ending in two. The statutory deadline (Minnesota Statutes, section 204B.14)
is twenty-five weeks before the November election; for the 2000-2002 redistricting process, the
deadline was March 19, 2002. If the Legislature is not able to adopt a plan by
the statutory deadline, the matter is referred to the courts. It became apparent
early in 2001 that there was a risk that the Legislature would not be able to
meet this deadline. On July 12, 2001, Chief Justice Kathleen A. Blatz of the Minnesota
Supreme Court appointed a special redistricting
panel, in response to a suit brought by Susan M. Zachman et al. alleging that,
under the then-current congressional districts, the population of the state of
Minnesota was unconstitutionally mal-apportioned. The panel then developed a redistricting
plan to be released only in the event that the Legislature failed to develop
a plan in a timely manner.
The Legislature did not adopt a redistricting plan before the deadline and
on March 19, 2002, the Congressional and Legislative Districts ordered by the
Minnesota Supreme Court in the matter of Zachman v. Kiffmeyer (case #C0-01-160)
were released in the standard course of appellate opinion releases for that day.
Maps and information regarding these Congressional and Legislative districts can
be found on the Legislature's Geographic Information Systems Office website
and on the Redistricting Panel website.
Local Redistricting
Once districts are established, local units of government with districts apportioned
by population must also redistrict themselves. When all the districts have been
determined, boundaries for election precincts are set. Statutes governing local
government redistricting procedure are listed in the State
Profile.
SIGNIFICANT BOOKS AND REPORTS:
Gillaspy, Tom. Fact
Sheet on Reapportionment and Redistricting. St. Paul: Minnesota Planning,
2000. (A succinct and informative essay by Minnesota's State Demographer.)
Redistricting
Law 2000. Denver, CO: National Conference of State Legislatures, 1999. (KF4905 .N27 1999)
State Redistricting Profiles 2000. Washington, D.C.: National Conference of State Legislatures, 1999.
(JK2493 .S73 1999)
Wattson, Peter. 1990s
Supreme Court Redistricting Decisions. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office
of Senate Counsel and Research, 2002.. (JK1341.W38 1997) (This essay covers U.S.
Supreme Court decisions affecting many states; there is a section specifically
dealing with Minnesota.)
Wattson, Peter.
Enacting a Redistricting Plan. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office of Senate Counsel
and Research, 1997. (KF4905.W38 1997) (A review of the procedures states have used to enact legislative
and congressional redistricting plans.)
Wattson, Peter. How
to Draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up in Court. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office of Senate Counsel
and Research, 1999. (JK1341.W382 1999)
Wattson, Peter.
Outline of Redistricting Litigation. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office
of Senate Counsel and Research, 1999. (JK1341.W384 1997) (A state-by-state list
of court cases, a project of the Redistricting Task Force of the National Conference
of State Legislatures.)
Wattson, Peter. Public
Access to Redistricting Data in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office of Senate Counsel and Research, 2000.
(KFM5862.6.A25W37 2000)
Wattson, Peter. Reapportionment
and Redistricting in the United States of America. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office of Senate Counsel and
Research, 2000. (KF4905.Z9W383 2000)
Wattson, Peter. Use
of Racial Data in Redistricting. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office of
Senate Counsel and Research, 2001. (KF4905.W39 2000)
Wattson, Peter. Using Census Data for
Redistricting in Minnesota. St. Paul: Minnesota Senate, Office of Senate Counsel and Research, 1990.
SIGNIFICANT ARTICLES:
Maeda, David. "Balancing Act." Session
Weekly, January 19, 2001, p.3-4, 27.
"Politically Complex Task of Redistricting Lies Ahead." Minnesota
Journal, October 17, 2000, p. 1-2.
"Ten Secrets of Redistricting." State Legislatures, September 1999, p. 26-29.
Weber, Ronald E. "Emerging Trends in State Legislative Redistricting."
Spectrum: The Journal of State Government, Winter 2002, p. 13-15.
SIGNIFICANT INTERNET RESOURCES:
2000 Census Redistricting Data -- Data by geographic region from the Minnesota Land Management Information Center.
Census 2000 Gateway -- Includes tables, maps and reports from the Census
Bureau.
Congressional
Apportionment -- A website from the U.S. Census Bureau.
Government Redistricting
websites -- A list compiled by Purdue University Libraries.
Meeting minutes of the Minnesota House Committee on Redistricting.
Meeting minutes of the Minnesota Senate Subcommittee on Redistricting of the
Committee on Rules and Administration and the Senate Redistricting Work Group.
Minnesota State Court Redistricting
Panel -- Appointed by Chief Justice Kathleen Blatz in July 2001.
Redistricting -- Information
and maps from the Minnesota Legislature's Geographic
Information Systems office.
Redistricting -- Redistricting
information from many states from the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Redistricting Archive Page 2001-02 - Minnesota House of Representatives Public Information Services Television Archives of House committee action.
ADDITIONAL LIBRARY RESOURCES:
Check the following codes in the Newspaper Clipping File and the Vertical
File:
For additional articles, check the following Inside Issues headings:
- Redistricting/Reapportionment
For additional reports at the Legislative Reference Library, use these
Library
catalog searches: :
Apportionment
(Minnesota).
For further information on redistricting see: