Supreme Court Affirms How Prisoners Are Counted in a Census

Thanks to Ballot Access News for this post.

On June 25, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily affirmed the decision of a 3-judge court in Maryland, in Fletcher v Lamone, 11-1178. Maryland and a handful of other states now draw congressional and legislative districts under the assumption that prisoners should be tallied (for redistricting purposes) in the community in which they lived before they were imprisoned, instead of in the town where the prison is located.

The 3-judge court had upheld Maryland’s system. Today’s summary affirming means that other states are now free to follow the same policy, without fear that that method of counting prisoners is unconstitutional.

New York tried to pass this in 2012 but could not get it passed in both houses of the state legislature.









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Michael H. Drucker
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NY Senate Redistricting Update

The New York Senate redistricting maps and new 63rd district has been given the OK by Justice.

Use the above link to read the letter from Assistant U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perez.









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Michael H. Drucker
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NY Redistricting Update

Karim Camara, the Chair of New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic & Asian Legislative Caucus and Member of the Assembly-43rd District, wrote to T. Christian Herren, Jr. Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, United States Department of Justice, the following, explaining why they should reject New York's redistricting lines.

As Chair of the New York State Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, which consists of 48 minority members of the New York State Senate and Assembly; I write to urge the Attorney General to object to the pending Section 5 submission of the New York State Senate for S.6696 which provides for a new redistrict plan for the New York State Senate.

The Attorney General should object to S.6696 because the New York State Senate has failed to meet its burden of showing that S.6696 “neither has the purpose or will have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or membership in a language minority group. 42 U.S.C. Section 1973c(a). In addition, S. 6696 contains 63 New York Senate seats, a change from the existing plan that has 62 seats. Upon information and belief, the New York State Legislature also used a different methodology to calculate the number of districts in S.6696 than was used in the existing plan. Both of these changes constitute a change in “standard, procedure with respect to voting that must be precleared.

Problems With Certain Individual Senate Districts

In addition, the New York State Senate plan, S.6696, splits or cracks certain long established and emerging communities of interest. These districts include the following:

 10SD(South Queens) -- Splits off the area west of the Van Wyck Expressway which forms a community of interest with the area east of the Van Wyck.

 14SD(South-East Queens) – Cracks the Jamaica Estates community by cutting in and out of the area. Not compact.

 19SD(Central Brooklyn and East Brooklyn ) – Splits Flatlands area. The appendage of Marine Park should be eliminated.

 20SD(Central Brooklyn) – Cracks both Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. To prevent this, the northern boundary of SD20 should be placed at St. Marks Place. Also the two cultural icons contiguous to SD20, the Brooklyn Museum and the main branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, should be placed in the district. The hammer-shaped appendage which places a portion of Boro Park of West Brooklyn into SD20 should be eliminated.

 21SD(Central Brooklyn and South Brooklyn) – Cracks both the communities of Flatbush and Flatlands. All of Flatbush should be united in SD21. Prospect Park and Greenwood Cemetery should be part of SD20.

 25SD(Central Brooklyn) – Cracks both traditional Black communities of Crown Heights and Prospect Heights. The North-East area of Bedford Stuyvesant and all of Prospect Heights should be included in SD25.

 30SD(Harlem) – Cracks Harlem into three pieces by cutting out West Harlem to Hudson River from Martin Luther King Blvd to 147 Street and by cutting out East Harlem. Harlem should be kept whole from the Hudson River to East River.

 36SD(Lower Westchester and Northern Bronx) – Splits off East Yonkers and Fleetwood, whose residents form a community of interest with the Blacks in the Lower Westchester District. This district should have gone north to the city boundary to capture the entire community of interest in Lower Westchester.

For the foregoing reasons, I strongly urge the Attorney General the Attorney General to object to the pending Section 5 submission of the New York State Senate for S.6696.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Redistricting Update

The redistricting battle rages on as the defendants in a lawsuit challenging the state's Senate and Assembly lines were forced to answer amended complaints from the plaintiffs.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has retained counsel from the firm of Zuckerman Spaeder, which now employs ex-Cuomo Secretary Steve Cohen. The attorney named on the case is Cohen's partner Paul Shechtman, who taught Cohen in law school.

Shechtman's answer to the more than 100 different stipulations in the amended complaints consisted largely of "decline to answer".

There are only a handful of items the governor's answer admits: the Constitution did create a Senate, and part of the Constitution addresses the Senate's size; Nassau County used to be part of Queens in the 19th century; that a Constitutional Convention did take place in 1894; and that New York and Brooklyn were "fast growing metropolises"; that LATFOR held public hearings in 2001, and that LATFOR holds hearings in general.

This is from the latest Preclearance Status page:

NEW YORK:
Submission Number: 2012-1752
Action Date: 03/28/2012
Redistricting plan (House)
Submission received
Expedited Consideration Requested









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Michael H. Drucker
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Brooklyn Federal Court braces for NY State redistricting

A federal court that recently redrew New York's congressional districts is now preparing for the possibility of intervening in the redistricting process for state legislative elections as well. In an order last week, the court appointed Columbia Law School professor, Nathaniel Persily, to analyze what action the court must take to ensure New York has an electoral map in time for nominations for state legislative primaries on June 26.

In a lawsuit, Favors v. Cuomo, community leaders and activists asked the Eastern District of New York to intervene in the redistricting process for the state legislature and also in a separate process for New York's districts for elections to the U.S. House of Representatives. The plaintiffs claimed the legislature's inability to reach an agreement on House of Representatives districts and the possibility of legal impasse over the state legislative districts could disenfranchise voters. The federal case is Favors et al. v. Cuomo, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No. 11-5632.

Whether the court takes over redistricting for the state legislature depends on the outcome of several pending legal proceedings:

1 - The legislature's plan must be approved, or "precleared," by the U.S. Department of Justice, in accordance with the Voting Rights Act. This is because several districts in New York City, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx, have a history of discriminatory voting practices. The preclearance process, which began on March 16, can take anywhere from a week to 60 days.

2 - To speed that up, state lawmakers have filed a parallel preclearance proceeding in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. which also has the authority to vet Voting Rights Act compliance. If the redistricting map fails to win preclearance, it would go back to the state legislature for changes, a delay that could cause the Eastern District court to intervene.

3 - Even if the state legislative map is precleared, it could still be derailed by a challenge in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. New York Senate Democrats have filed a lawsuit, Cohen v. Cuomo, that seeks to declare the state's addition of a 63rd Senate seat unconstitutional. Oral arguments in the state case have been scheduled for April 6. Depending on when and how the judge rules, the result could send lawmakers scrambling to redraw their maps with weeks or less to go before state election primaries can begin.

In its order March 21, the Eastern District panel did not define the scope of Persily's analysis, which he is set to begin April 9. But one of the judges, U.S. Circuit Judge Reena Raggi, indicated the work may entail analyzing what steps, if any, the court must take to redistrict the state's legislative lines, including what information it must have and which areas of the maps it is legally obliged to address. This panel, is made up of Raggi, U.S. Circuit Judge Gerard Lynch and U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry.

Update
One set of complainants comes from the town of Ramapo, and says the new Assembly lines unfairly split the Orthodox Jewish community into three assembly districts.

“Based upon the proposed districts and the 2010 election results, there is no question that the Proposed Assembly districts were drawn specifically to separate the Villages of New Square and Kaser,” the plaintiffs write, alleging the new maps violate the state constitution and the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Another plaintiff’s amended complaint finds fault with both the Senate and Assembly’s lines in Nassau County, which the complainants argue crack districts that should be minority majority districts, disenfranchising black and Hispanic voters.

Still another complaint says the Assembly has not yet submitted its plans for redistricting to the Department of Justice for pre-clearance, and that the lack of an approved plan constitutes a violation of New Yorkers’ rights. The Senate submitted on 3/16/2012 and on 3/20/2012 with more information, under submission number 2012-1445.









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Michael H. Drucker
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NY Redistricting Lines Still Open to Change

Last week Governor Cuomo signed off on the new State Senate and Assembly districts, seemingly ending the redistricting saga, but those lines still have some hurdles to overcome.

First, the U.S. Justice Department must certify that the lines conform with the Voting Rights Act.

Then the State Senate Democrats filed a lawsuit that the creation of a 63rd State Senate seat violates the state constitution and was done only to help the Republican majority retail power.

There is still a possibility these lines could be struck down and the courts would have to step in once again. So in Brooklyn Federal Court, a panel of federal judges directed a court-appointed expert to start looking at new state lines by April 9, a move cheered by civil rights groups.

"Today the court has agreed to hold onto the case just to make sure that if there's a problem with the maps, that the court will be ready to step in," said Esmeralda Simmons of the Center for Law and Social Justice.

That same Brooklyn court has already created new Congressional lines, setting the stage for some interesting primary races for and between incumbents.

For example, Congressman Charles Rangel's district has been redrawn to encompass a large chunk of the Bronx, which is now majority Hispanic. So State Senator Adriano Espaillat has begun the process of gathering signatures in order to challenge Rangel in a primary.









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Michael H. Drucker
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New Yorker's Still Could Face Three Primaries

From the New York Daily News.

New Yorkers will go to the polls four times between now and November thanks to the insanity of the election calendar and petty, political maneuvering by state Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and his Republicans.

April: Presidential primary.

June: Primaries for Congress.

September: Primaries for State Legislature.

November: General Election.

Cost: $200 million.

Gov. Cuomo and Assembly Democrats agreed to move the September primaries to June and combine them with congressional races. That would have saved $50 million, but Skelos claimed the early primary would distract lawmakers from Albany duty.

He thinks a fall primary is better for the Senate GOP, so who cares about taxpayers and voters?

Use the above link to read Assembly Bill A09271 that was passed by the Assembly but rejected by the Senate.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Redistricting View from a State Senator

This is from my New York State Senator.

I want to take the opportunity to explain what happened after midnight last night in the State Legislature.

Last night, around midnight on the morning of the Ides of March, my Senate Democratic colleagues and I refused to support a backroom deal on redistricting that protects incumbent legislators by disenfranchising minorities, discriminating against voters from New York City and Long Island, and blatantly violating the Voting Rights Act.

When we tried to raise these issues in debate, the Republican Senate leadership silenced us – violating a previously agreed-to timeframe for debating the measure. Faced with a bill that would violate New Yorkers’ voting rights, and denied even the opportunity to speak on the floor of the Senate, we stood up for New Yorkers in the only way left to us – by standing up and leaving the Senate Chamber. We refused to legitimize their cowardly censorship of floor debate, an open attack on deliberative democracy. We were thus marked absent on the vote, but let me be clear: my vote was NO!

Then, continuing into the dead of night, the Senate passed bills that had just been introduced on Tier VI Pensions, casino gambling, teacher evaluations, and DNA collection. All of these bills were then voted on while the ink was still wet, after I and my Democratic colleagues had left the chamber. These are all important legislative measures that should have been reviewed, discussed and debated on the merits – but instead they were passed between midnight and 4 a.m., with no real opportunity for legislators to review or consider them.

There was no committee review or discussion and no public notice, nor did they age for three days as required. They were delivered with Messages of Necessity from the governor – which allows skipping the normal process under emergency circumstances. What was the emergency?

This procedure was used because passing them was the tradeoff for the governor agreeing to sign the gerrymandered redistricting lines. I and my colleagues would have loved the opportunity to study and debate these specific proposals, but because that was not permitted, we were prepared to vote no last night.

I feel my colleagues made an important statement by refusing to participate in the farce that occurred last night in the Capitol. There has been much talk about a ‘new New York’ and in particular a new, functional, transparent Albany, but passing bills in the dead of night certainly does not meet that description. With backroom deals on redistricting and constitutional amendments, with 4 a.m. votes on bills too new to even have been read, with the doors to the Capitol literally locked down to shut out the public – we have been brought back to the ugly days of the past.

I am proud of my Democratic colleagues for being the only ones willing to take a stand for 19.5 million New Yorkers’ voting rights, for small-‘d’ democracy in our state, and for the ‘new New York’ I will continue to fight for that is, sadly, not yet a reality.

Sincerely,

Liz Krueger
State Senator









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Michael H. Drucker
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NY Redistricting Update

New York's Legislature version of transparency is to pass bills and laws in the middle of the night. So why think the redistricting and primary dates would be any different and they did this after passing a resolution calling this week "Sunshine Week".

With the Democratic Senators leaving the chamber, the Republican Senate passed new maps, a constitution amendment to create their version of an independent commission, and added a new 63rd Senate district. The independent commission change would also cancel a prior passed bill that would have counted prisoners where they lived at the time of arrest and not their prison location.

The Assembly passed the change to the state's primary date from Sept. to June 26, the same as the the congressional date, the new lines, and the constitutional amendment.

Now we watch what Governor Cuomo will do.

For Immediate Release: March 15, 2012

GOVERNOR CUOMO ANNOUNCES PASSAGE OF CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT AND LEGAL STATUTE THAT PERMANENTLY REFORMS REDISTRICTING PROCESS
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the passage of the constitutional amendment and legal statute that reforms the redistricting process in New York state by putting an end to the partisan and incumbent-protection gerrymandering that has plagued the process for over a century.

“This agreement will permanently reform the redistricting process in New York to once and for all end self-interested and partisan gerrymandering,” Governor Cuomo said. “With the legislature agreeing to pass this historic constitutional amendment twice by a specified date, and passing a tough statute that mirrors the amendment, we have taken a major step toward finally reforming the state’s broken redistricting process. New York is now a leader among the growing number of states that have reformed their redistricting process in an effort to stop such gerrymandering.”

Dr. Michael MacDonald, Associate Professor of Government and Politics, George Mason University and non-resident Senior Fellow, Brookings Institution, said, “Thanks to Governor Cuomo’s principled stand and the legislature’s willingness to think beyond their immediate political calculations, New Yorkers have an unprecedented opportunity to permanently improve the process of drawing political boundaries to better reflect the needs of New York’s communities over the desires of the politicians. This is a truly remarkable development. Never before in the history of American politics has a governor negotiated such a redistricting reform with the legislature in the midst of this decennial power struggle. The constitutional amendment announced today will bring much-needed independence and fairness to the redistricting process in New York.”

The agreement announced today includes three components, as follows:

Constitutional Amendment: The Senate and the Assembly each agreed to introduce a resolution this session that will amend the state Constitution to establish a new redistricting process for both state legislative and congressional district lines. The separate statute discussed below requires the amendment to be passed a second time by both houses no later than January 30, 2013, at which point it will be placed on the ballot statewide for approval by the voters. The constitutional amendment will reform the redistricting process permanently beginning in the next cycle in 2020-22 as follows:

· The Independent Redistricting Commission. The constitutional amendment requires the appointment of an independent redistricting commission to draw the district lines, consisting of ten members: two appointees by each of the four legislative leaders and two appointees selected by at least five of those eight members. Neither of the latter two members shall have been enrolled members of either of the two major political parties in New York State in the last five years and at least one appointee made by either the assembly or senate minority leader must approve those two members. Accordingly, the commission’s composition will ensure unprecedented and substantial roles in drawing the district lines for both the minority party conferences and for citizens who are not major party members. The amendment further requires that the commission reflects “the diversity of the residents of this state with regard to race, ethnicity, gender, language, and geographic residence” and that the appointing authorities shall consult with organizations devoted to protecting the voting rights of minority and other voters concerning their appointments. The commission members must be registered voters in New York State, but shall not have been in the last three years (a) members of the state legislature or congress or a statewide official or the spouse of any of these elected officials, (b) a state officer or employee or legislative employee; (c) a registered lobbyist; or (d) a political party chairman. Together, these requirements will ensure that the commission’s members are both independent, representative of the State’s diverse communities, and sensitive to the critical importance to voters of fair and proper district lines.

· Commission Voting Rules to Ensure Independence and Curb Partisan Gerrymandering. To approve a districting plan, the independent redistricting commission requires the vote of at least seven of its ten members in support of the plan. If the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of two different political parties, then the seven or more members who approve a plan must include at least one member appointed by the speaker of the assembly and one member appointed by the temporary president of the senate. If the speaker of the assembly and the temporary president of the senate are members of the same political party, then the seven or more members who approve a plan must include one member appointed by each of the four legislative leaders. This voting rule ensures that at least three members of the commission who were not appointed by the majority conferences in either house must approve a plan before it is sent to the legislature for a vote, a key barrier to partisan gerrymandering in the development of district maps.

· Commission Must Hold Extensive Public Hearings & Release Draft Plans with All Relevant Data Using Best Available Technology. To ensure greater transparency and public involvement, the amendment requires that the commission must hold numerous public hearings in specified cities and counties throughout the state and, prior to its first hearing, must make publicly available using the best available technology not only its draft plans but also all relevant data to facilitate public review and analysis of those plans, and the development of alternative plans. These provisions will create greater public transparency in the redistricting process and ensure that the commission’s final districting plans reflect fully input from communities and individuals across the state.

· Iowa-Style Process for Legislature’s Approval of Commission Plans Designed to Minimize Partisan Gerrymandering. After the commission’s public hearings, the Legislature shall receive and approve or disapprove the commission’s plans without amendment. If the commission’s first plan is rejected, the commission must submit an amended plan, which must be voted upon by the legislature again without amendments. If the commission’s second plan is also rejected upon such vote, each house may then amend that plan prior to approval except that such amendments must comply with the substantive principles set forth above and, pursuant to the statute being approved separately in conjunction with this resolution, cannot affect more than two percent of the population of any district in the commission’s plan. This structure will provide strict restrictions on the legislature’s changes to the commission’s plans.

· Legislature’s Voting Rules Designed to Protect Minority Conferences and Limit Gerrymandering. Special voting rules will govern each house’s vote upon the independent redistricting commission’s plans in order to protect the minority conferences in each house and ensure the integrity of the commission’s plans by requiring approval by more than a majority of members under certain circumstances. If the Speaker of the Assembly and the Temporary President of the Senate are members of two different political parties, approval of a commission’s redistricting plan shall require a vote in support of such approval by at least a majority of the members of each house. But if the Speaker and the Temporary President of the Senate are members of the same political party, then approval of a commission’s redistricting plan shall require a vote in support of such approval by at least two-thirds of the members of each house. This rule will prevent in future decades the kind of one-party gerrymandering to suppress the minority party in a state that has plagued other states, like Texas, in the past.

· Substantive Criteria to Prohibit Partisan Gerrymandering and to Protect Minority Voting Rights and Communities of Interest. The commission’s redistricting plans must be drawn according to principles that provide unprecedented restrictions on partisan gerrymandering, and new protections for the voting rights of racial and language minorities, and for existing communities of interest. In particular, the commission must consider whether district lines would result in the denial or abridgment of racial or language minority voting rights, no districts shall be drawn to have the purpose of, or result in, such denial or abridgement, and districts shall be drawn so that racial or language minority groups do not have less opportunity to participate in the political process than other members of the electorate and to elect representatives of their choice; districts shall not be drawn to discourage competition or for the purpose of favoring or disfavoring incumbents or other particular candidates or political parties; for the first time in the constitution, communities of interest must be considered in drawing district lines; districts shall contain as nearly as may be an equal number of inhabitants and any deviation in a district must be explained specifically by the commission; and districts shall be contiguous and as compact in form as practicable.

Together, these principles will provide for the first time strong and explicit restrictions on partisan gerrymandering, and protections in the constitution for minority communities beyond those contained in the federal Voting Rights Act which is facing increasing legal attacks in the courts.

· Judicial Review Provisions To Enforce Compliance With Independent Redistricting Process & Adherence to Substantive Principles. If the courts are called upon to review the district lines, this amendment requires that the court find such lines to be invalid in whole or in part if they are not in compliance with the procedural or substantive provisions of this article. Together with the other protections noted above, this provision will help to ensure that the district lines that are ultimately adopted reflect the independence, concern for minority voting rights, and attention to equal representation that the commission must provide.

Statute: The Senate and the Assembly each agreed to introduce a statute to be approved by both houses that mirrors the constitutional amendment in all respects except for two additional elements. As set forth in greater detail in the statute’s effective date provisions, the statute is intended to ensure that, if the constitutional amendment is not passed for the second time in 2013 notwithstanding the public commitments by the two houses to do so, the statute will become effective and the redistricting process will be reformed by statute just as it would have been by constitutional amendment. These provisions further provide that if either house fails to pass the constitutional amendment a second time before January 30, 2013, then that house shall lose its appointments to the independent redistricting commission established by the statute and the governor will instead appoint those members. This provides a significant incentive for the legislature to honor their statutory commitment to pass the constitutional amendment a second time.

In addition, the statute further includes a restriction on any amendments made by the legislature to a districting plan submitted by the commission such that no amendment may affect more than two percent of the population of any district in such plan. This will ensure that the legislature’s amendments may tweak, but cannot fundamentally alter the commission’s district lines. It also provides more specific deadlines for each step of the redistricting process that are most appropriately placed in a statute rather than in the constitution. Critically, these additional provisions will be effective if the voters approve the constitutional amendment or if the statute instead becomes effective.

______________________________________________

Now will those in the legislature who do not want this go to court with issues about minority concerns, the calculations used to create the 63rd senate district, and voting rights act violations.

Can you guess what behind the door deals the Governor cut to approve this?









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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NY Redistricting Update

I attended, last night, a Redistricting Town Hall meeting at Baruch College given by Common Cause with other Good Government Groups.

The short version was the Governor's statement today "You Deal with the Real". They think he will approve the Legislature's final lines, the Constitutional Amendment with some tweaking, and moving the State Primaries to June. If this happens, the Petition period would be March 20 - April 16.

Many groups are going to Albany to protest for the Dream Act and the Governor's Redistricting Veto. Today 10:30 a.m. – 1,300 immigrant New Yorkers gather in Albany for Immigrants’ Day of Action with a 12 p.m. press conference and rally at West Lafayette Park.

Some are saying the Governor knew about these final lines four months ago and will use his vote to get his Pension and Budget passed.

Common Cause said if the state was under pre-clearance the changes in Nassau, Brooklyn, Queens, and the calculation to get the 63rd state senate district would fail. Could become a court challenge if passed.

In advance of a suspected deal on redistricting between Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the Legislature, the legislative redistricting task force known as LATFOR has set a meeting today for 11 a.m., according to a notice published late Tuesday evening. In the past three redistricting cycles, LATFOR met, discussed proposals, then voted to report the state redistricting plans to the Legislature, with the meeting itself being scheduled at least three days before the vote. This year, the meeting has been scheduled three days after the bill was introduced. The normal process was disregarded so a bill could be introduced Sunday to account for the required three-day aging process, in order to enable a vote today, a source involved in the redistricting process said. The meeting Wednesday will be a "rubber stamp" on the bills proposed Sunday, the source noted.

Central New York officials are calling on Albany to consolidate all of the state’s primary elections on June 26, arguing the three different dates amount to a costly mandate for municipalities.

Hope this gives you a sample of the dysfunctional New York Legislature.









NYC Wins When Everyone Can Vote!

Michael H. Drucker
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