Constitutional amendment; Virginia Redistricting Commission (first reference). (SJ306)
Introduced By
Sen. George Barker (D-Alexandria) with support from co-patron Sen. Dick Saslaw (D-Springfield)
Progress
✓ |
Introduced |
✓ |
Passed Committee |
✓ |
Passed House |
☐ |
Passed Senate |
Description
Constitutional amendment (first resolution); apportionment; Virginia Redistricting Commission. Establishes the Virginia Redistricting Commission, a 16-member Commission tasked with establishing districts for the United States House of Representatives and for the Senate and the House of Delegates of the General Assembly. The Commission consists of eight legislative members and eight citizen members. The legislative members consist of four members of the Senate of Virginia and four members of the House of Delegates, with equal representation given to the political parties having the highest and next highest number of members in their respective houses. The citizen members are selected by a selection committee consisting of five retired judges of the circuit courts of Virginia, from lists submitted to the selection committee by the Speaker of the House of Delegates, the leader in the House of Delegates of the political party having the next highest number of members in the House of Delegates, the President pro tempore of the Senate of Virginia, and the leader in the Senate of the political party having the next highest number of members in the Senate. The Commission is required to submit to the General Assembly plans of districts for the Senate and the House of Delegates of the General Assembly no later than 45 days following the receipt of census data and plans of districts for the United States House of Representatives no later than 60 days following the receipt of census data, or July 1 of that year, whichever occurs later. The measure requires certain vote thresholds for plans, depending on the type of district, in order to be submitted to the General Assembly. No amendments may be made to a plan by the General Assembly or the Governor. The measure requires additional plans to be submitted, or additional time to be given to submit a plan, in certain circumstances, and further provides that districts will be drawn by the Supreme Court of Virginia if such efforts fail. Read the Bill »
Status
03/09/2019: Passed the General Assembly
History
Date | Action |
---|---|
01/09/2019 | Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/09/19 19104200D |
01/09/2019 | Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections |
01/22/2019 | Reported from Privileges and Elections with substitute (13-Y 0-N 1-A) (see vote tally) |
01/22/2019 | Committee substitute printed 19105499D-S1 |
01/24/2019 | Reading waived (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
01/25/2019 | Passed by for the day |
01/28/2019 | Passed by for the day |
01/30/2019 | Read second time |
01/30/2019 | Reading of substitute waived |
01/30/2019 | Committee substitute agreed to 19105499D-S1 |
01/30/2019 | Reading of amendment waived |
01/30/2019 | Amendment by Senator Howell agreed to |
01/30/2019 | Amendments #1 and #2 by Senator Sturtevant withdrawn |
01/30/2019 | Amendment #3 by Senator Sturtevant rejected (17-Y 23-N) (see vote tally) |
01/30/2019 | Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute with amendment SJ306ES1 |
01/30/2019 | Printed as engrossed 19105499D-ES1 |
01/31/2019 | Read third time and agreed to by Senate (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/04/2019 | Placed on Calendar |
02/04/2019 | Referred to Committee on Privileges and Elections |
02/04/2019 | Assigned P & E sub: Subcommittee #4 |
02/11/2019 | Subcommittee recommends reporting with substitute (5-Y 3-N) |
02/15/2019 | Reported from Privileges and Elections with substitute (12-Y 10-N) (see vote tally) |
02/15/2019 | Committee substitute printed 19106689D-H1 |
02/19/2019 | Taken up |
02/19/2019 | Committee substitute agreed to 19106689D-H1 (51-Y 48-N) |
02/19/2019 | Engrossed by House - committee substitute SJ306 |
02/19/2019 | Agreed to by House with substitute (51-Y 48-N) |
02/19/2019 | VOTE: ADOPTION (51-Y 48-N) (see vote tally) |
02/19/2019 | Engrossed by House - committee substitute SJ306H1 |
02/20/2019 | House substitute rejected by Senate (0-Y 40-N) (see vote tally) |
02/21/2019 | House insisted on substitute |
02/21/2019 | House requested conference committee |
02/21/2019 | Senate acceded to request (40-Y 0-N) (see vote tally) |
02/21/2019 | Conferees appointed by Senate |
02/21/2019 | Senators: Barker, Vogel, Cosgrove |
02/21/2019 | Conferees appointed by House |
02/21/2019 | Delegates: Cole, Rush, Leftwich, Krizek |
02/23/2019 | C Amended by conference committee |
02/23/2019 | Conference substitute printed 19107724D-S2 |
02/23/2019 | Conference report agreed to by House (85-Y 13-N) |
02/23/2019 | VOTE: ADOPTION (85-Y 13-N) (see vote tally) |
02/23/2019 | Conference report agreed to by Senate (39-Y 1-N) (see vote tally) |
03/07/2019 | Enrolled |
03/07/2019 | Bill text as passed Senate and House (SJ306ER) |
03/07/2019 | Signed by Speaker |
03/09/2019 | Signed by President |
03/26/2019 | Assigned Chapter 824 (effective 7/1/18) |
03/26/2019 | G Acts of Assembly Chapter text (CHAP0824) |
03/26/2019 | Assigned Chapter 824 (effective 7/1/19) |
Comments
Voting districts are like playing fields, everybody knows that they have to be fairly drawn or the game is rigged. This bill seems to have no transparency to allow the voters or the judiciary to determine how the voting districts are drawn. Seems that it would set us up for another decade of expensive court cases to suss out and correct the mistakes of a secret redistricting process. Now is the time to make this process transparent, while neither political party is firmly in control.