Supreme Court to review Texas redistricting

San Jose Mercury News by Gina Holland Dec. 12, 2005 quote: "..Justices will consider a constitutional challenge to the boundaries filed by various opponents. The court will hear two hours of arguments in four separate appeals. Lawyers have been told the case will be argued March 1, so the outcome could affect 2006 elections..." ....read more...
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AP Wire | 12/12/2005 | Supreme Court to review Texas redistricting

Congresswoman Candice S. Miller | Serving Michigan's 10th District

quote: "United States Representative Candice Miller's bold proposal to amend the United States Constitution so that only legal citizens are represented in Congress and in Presidential elections was heard on Tuesday, December 6 by the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Federalism and the Census." ....read more...
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Congresswoman Candice S. Miller | Serving Michigan's 10th District

Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)

House Joint Resolution 53 Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to provide that Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the number of persons in each state who are citizens of the United States.
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Search Results - THOMAS (Library of Congress)

NEWS REPORTS

March 15, 2005 - December 4, 2005

1994 CQ Report - The Court That Forgot About Politics by Alan Ehrenhalt in Governing Magazine - quote: We don't choose governors or senators to be justices any more, and we've paid a price for that.

1997 Governing Magazine - Redistricting Goes Digital by Geoff Earle quote: Drawing political maps is now a high-tech game. But almost anybody can play.

2001 Governing Magazine - The Mapmaking Mess by Alan Greenblatt quote: Drawing new political districts is always chaotic, but this round promises to be the wildest yet. Everyone at the table has an agenda.

2004 Governing Magazine - Frankfurter's Curse by Alan Ehrenhalt quote: Fifty-eight years ago, Justice Felix Frankfurter told his brethren to stay out of the business of drawing political maps. "Courts ought not to enter this political thicket," Frankfurter warned in Colegrove v. Green. "The fulfillment of this duty cannot be judicially enforced."

2004 Governing Magazine - Whatever Happened To Competitive Elections? by Alan Greenblatt quote: Nearly 6,000 state legislators will be elected next month. Most of
them face little or no opposition.


WHICH PARTY CONTROLS THE 50 STATE LEGISLATURES?

Democrats Control:
1. Alabama 63 - 42 -- 2. Arkansas 72 - 28 -- 3. California 47 - 32 -- 4. Colorado 35 - 30
5. Connecticut 99 -52 -- 6. Hawaii 41 - 10 -- 7. Illinois 65 - 53 -- 8. Kentucky 57 - 43
9. Louisiana 67 - 37 -- 10. Maine 76 - 73 -- 11. Maryland 98 - 43 -- 12. Massachusetts 139 - 21
13. Mississippi 72 - 47 -- 14. New Jersey 47 - 33 -- 15. New Mexico 42 - 28 -- 16. Nevada 26 - 15
17. New York 104 - 44 -- 18. North Carolina 63 - 57 -- 19. Rhode Island 60 - 15
20. Tennessee 53 - 46 -- 21. Vermont 83 - 60 -- 22. Washington 55 - 43 -- 23. West Virginia 68 - 32

Republicans Control:

24. Alaska 14 - 26 -- 25. Arizona 22 - 38 -- 26. Delaware 15 - 26 -- 27. Florida 36 - 84 -- 28. Georgia 80 - 100
29. Idaho 13 - 57 -- 30. Iowa 49 - 51 -- 31. Indiana 48 - 52 -- 32. Kansas 42 - 83 -- 33. Michigan 52 - 58
34. Minnesota 66 - 68 -- 35. Missouri 64 - 97 -- 36. New Hampshire 149 - 251 -- (the 3rd largest parliamentary body in the English speaking world BTW) -- 37. North Dakota 27 - 67 -- 38. Ohio 39 - 60 -- 39. Oklahoma 44 - 57
40. Oregon 27 - 33 -- 41. Pennsylvania 92 - 110 -- 42. South Carolina 49 - 73 -- 43. South Dakota 19 - 51
44. Texas 62 - 87 -- 45. Utah 19 - 56 -- 46. Virginia 38 - 60 -- 47. Wisconsin 39 - 60
48. Wyoming 14 - 46

Split
49. Montana 50 - 50

Non Partisan
50. Nebraska

I hope I got all those number right -- JB Feucht :o)


July, 2005 Toledo Blade Amendments would shift authority over Ohio elections by Jim Provance Blade Columbus Bureau

August 2005 USA TODAY Editorial/Opinion - Revolt builds to force competitive elections

August 2005 USA TODAY Redistricting plans (bi)czar by Greg Hartmann Editorial/Opinion

October 2005 Governing Magazine Redistricting Monster Maps by Alan Greenblatt quote: There's a growing consensus among good-government reformers that
partisan mapmaking is the cause of many, if not most, contemporary political problems.

November 2005 Boston Globe Alito disagreed with court decisions on reapportionment by Michael Kranish and Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent

December 2005 Washington Post Justice Staff Saw Texas Districting As Illegal by Dan Eggen Staff Writer

December 2005 C-Span Series Q & A 12/04/05 guest U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer quote "what I believe so much, that people have to participate in this democracy for it to work. I can‘t prove that, but I can say that the document, the Constitution foresees that they will participate. And if they don‘t participate themselves, I don‘t see how that system is going to work.".... read transcript or watch program... click on "Past Programs" at top of page

December 2005 Dallas Morning News AG says Texas remap approval not political quote: "Attorney General Al Gonzales said Friday that the Justice Department was not motivated by politics when it approved a controversial Texas congressional redistricting plan in 2003, overriding objections within the Civil Rights Division that minority voters would be harmed."..

ELECTION HISTORY & RESOURCES & REFORMS

SOME ELECTION HISTORY

Core Documents of U.S. Democracy

Robert Richie Executive Director of the Center for Voting and Democracy discusses voting systems - designer districts - packing and cracking

Frequently Asked Questions about the U.S. Electoral College

Federal Elections Commission The Electoral College brief history

CONGRESS

Session Dates of Congress 1st to Current Congress

Congressional Bills Search Access all published versions of bills from the 103rd Congress forward.

Redistricting Resource Center

Distribution of Electoral Votes 1981 - 2010

LAW - Election of Senators and Representatives

Number of Congressional Districts Number of Representatives from each District

Section 2a Reapportionment of Representatives; time and manner; existing decennial census figures as basis;

Section 2b Number of Representatives from each State in 78th and subsequent Congresses

U.S. Code Title 13 - Census

U.S. Code Title 2 - The Congress

List of Electors Bound by State Law and Pledges

Moritz - The Ohio State University College of Law information and insight on the laws governing federal, state and local elections

Two links to United States Code BrowseU.S. Code

United States Code - beta site

RESOURCES - Apportionment Information

CENSUS:
Census 2000: Apportionment & Representation

U.S. Census Gateway

Computing Apportionment

HR 1753 Public law 94-171

Electoral College Calculator Try your hand at predicting who will win the next presidential election. You can create your own election results by clicking on a different button in one of three columns, Democrat (D), Republican (R), and Third Party (O).

Since the landmark Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s that established the one-person, one-vote principle, a number of states have shifted redistricting of state legislative district lines from the legislature to a board or commission. National Conference of State Legislatures Redistricting Commissions Overview

Commissions with Primary Responsibility for Drawing a Plan

Congressional Plans

Administration and Cost of Elections Project - ACE Electronic PublicationThis publication contains comprehensive information on various aspects of organising elections and is divided into twelve major topic areas. To access information on apportionment, click on "Boundry Delimination" when the new page opens.

FAQ's - Teaching Resources - Historical Resources - Calculator

UC Irvine - the Center for the Study of Democracy ..provide access to a variety of internet information sources dealing with issues of democratization and democratic politics. The listing includes is broadly international in its content, including both U.S. and international sources.

REFORMS

The Century Foundation Balancing Access and Integrity The Report of The Century Foundation Working group on State Implementation of Election Reform looks at how states can implement future elections in a way that balances ballot integrity with voting rights and accessibility. More...

Project Vote Smart The Voter's Self-Defense Manual....to protect all of us from the selfish interests that strip us of the most crucial component in our struggle to self-govern -- access to abundant, accurate, and relevant information. read more....

FairVote - National Popular Elections FairVote seeks elections that promote voter turnout, fair representation, inclusive policy and meaningful choices by building on our nation's history of improving upon the American experiment.

NARA | Federal Register | U. S. Electoral College

Electoral College Calculator - Predict who will win the next Presidential election.

Using the list, "Which Party Controls the Legislature" ( next item ) the Democrats reap 268 electoral votes, the Republicans receive 270 electoral votes.

It is important to remember that a statewide election for President does not always go to the party that controls the State Legislature. Ohio was close for Bush. A few thousand more voting for Kerry would have turned the election around.

Why were more voters there for Bush? Because the Republican Party is the winning team in Ohio. They have largely acheived this dominance through two rounds of gerrymandered redistricting. ( The Democrats did the same thing when they had the power BTW. ) As a result, among the 18 Congressional districts, 12 are considered "safe-seats" for Republicans and six for Democrats. It is even worse at the State House, where we have 99 legislative districts. Current split is 60 - 39 favoring the Republican party.

November 2, 2004, of the 99 House legislative races, 9 Republicans and 13 Democrats ran unopposed. Among the 77 seats remaining, the winner won by less then 2 percent in two districts; 1 and 63. Five district races (21, 41, 57, 91, and 93) resulted in a winning margin under 6 percent. Look at it the other way, Ohio politicians gave the voters 7 competitive elections and 92 safe seat ceremonial inductions.

"Why weren't the voters there for Kerry?" Voter apathy maybe? Tired of losing every two years they just say to heck with it.

the Link:

NARA | Federal Register | U. S. Electoral College