Legislative redistricting

Legislative redistricting plans enacted pursuant to this procedure are used to elect members of the legislature in the fall of the second year following the year of the census.

This bill creates a new procedure for the preparation of legislative redistricting plans. The bill directs the Legislative Reference Bureau (LRB) to draw redistricting plans based upon standards specified in the bill and establishes a redistricting advisory commission to perform certain tasks in the redistricting process. The bill also makes various other changes to the laws governing redistricting. Significant aspects of the bill include the following:

Redistricting standards Under the bill, a redistricting plan drawn by the LRB must satisfy several criteria, including the following:

1. The plan must be based on population requirements imposed under the Wisconsin Constitution and the U.S. Constitution and requirements imposed under the federal Voting Rights Act, which, among other things, generally prohibits redistricting plans from abridging the right to vote on account of race or color or because a person is a member of a language minority group.

2. The senate and assembly districts established in the plan must satisfy equal population standards specified in the bill.

3. District boundaries under the plan must coincide with municipal ward boundaries and, to the extent consistent with the Wisconsin Constitution, the U.S.

Constitution, and the Voting Rights Act, must coincide with the boundaries of political subdivisions. The number of political subdivisions divided among more than one district must be as small as possible and must preserve the communities of interest.

4. Districts must be composed of convenient contiguous territory. Under the bill, areas that meet only at the points of adjoining corners are not contiguous.

5. To the extent consistent with the requirements described in items 1 to 3, districts must be compact. The bill also specifies how compactness is to be measured.

6. In preparing the plan, the LRB must be strictly nonpartisan. No district may be drawn for the purpose of favoring a political party, incumbent legislator, or other person or group. The LRB may not use residence addresses of incumbent legislators, political affiliations of registered voters, previous election results, or demographic information to augment or dilute the voting strength of a language or racial minority group, except as necessary to meet the requirements described in item 1.

7. The number of assembly districts may not be less than 54 nor more than 100.

The number of senate districts may not be more than one-third nor less than one-fourth of the number of assembly districts and each senate district must contain only whole assembly districts.

Redistricting advisory commission The bill assigns several tasks to the redistricting advisory commission, including the following:

1. If requested to do so by the LRB, the commission must provide direction to the LRB concerning any decision the LRB must make in preparing a redistricting plan for which no clearly applicable guideline is provided under the bill.

2. The commission must make available to the public at the earliest feasible time copies of any redistricting bill delivered by the LRB to the legislature, as provided under this bill, maps illustrating the redistricting bill, a summary of the standards applicable to the LRB for development of the plan in the redistricting bill, and a statement of the population of each district created in the plan and the relative deviation of each district population from the ideal district population.

3. The commission must conduct at least eight public hearings on a redistricting bill delivered by the LRB to the legislature, as provided under this bill, unless the redistricting bill represents a plan drawn in response to a redistricting bill that was previously delivered to the legislature and rejected by at least one house.

The commission must hold one public hearing in a city of the first class, at least one public hearing in the northern half of the state, and no more than one public hearing in the city of Madison. The commission must submit a report to the legislature summarizing information and testimony received by the commission at the hearings. The report may also include any comments and conclusions that the commission's members deem appropriate concerning the information and testimony received at the hearings or otherwise presented to the commission.

The bill also permits the commission to establish policies limiting the information that the LRB may provide to persons other than LRB staff concerning any redistricting plan drawn by the LRB, except that any such policy does not apply to population data furnished to the LRB by the U.S. Bureau of the Census or to a redistricting plan after a bill embodying that plan is delivered by the LRB to the legislature as required under this bill. The policies established by the commission must be consistent with the current law limitations applicable to bills created by the LRB.

Under the bill, the redistricting advisory commission must be created not later than February 15 of the first year following the federal decennial census and terminates upon satisfying its duties, until a new redistricting advisory commission is created for the next round of legislative redistricting. The commission consists of five members. The speaker and minority leader of the assembly and the majority and minority leaders of the senate must each appoint one person to serve on the commission. Within 30 days after the fourth commission member is appointed, but not later than February 15 of the first year following the federal decennial census, the four commission members so appointed must select the fifth commission member, who serves as chairperson. The bill prohibits all of the following individuals from being a commission member: individuals who are not eligible electors of this state at the time of the appointment, individuals who hold partisan public office or political party office, and individuals who are a relative of or are employed by a member of the legislature, or are employed directly by the legislature or Congress.

Under the bill, the LRB must provide assistance to the commission regarding the operations of the commission. In addition, upon the LRB's recommendation, the commission must appoint a person with expertise in complying with the federal Voting Rights Act. Finally, no member of the commission may abstain from taking a vote on any matter before the commission, and no vote may be taken by the commission without all five members present and voting.

Redistricting process The bill requires the LRB to perform certain tasks in preparation for drawing legislative redistricting plans on the basis of each federal decennial census. For example, as soon as possible after receiving from the U.S. Bureau of the Census the population data needed for legislative redistricting, the LRB must use that data to assign a population figure to geographic or political units to facilitate the drawing of redistricting plans. Typically, this data is available on or about April 1 of the first year following the federal decennial census. The LRB must also prepare and publish an analysis describing the population of current legislative districts and the extent to which the districts may violate the redistricting standards described above. In addition, as municipalities complete their ward plans (typically, by October of the first year following the federal decennial census), the LRB must assign a population figure based upon certified federal census data to each municipal ward, for use in drawing redistricting plans.

Not later than January 1 of the second year following the federal decennial census, the LRB must deliver to the majority leader of the senate and speaker of the assembly identical bills embodying a plan of legislative districting, drawn in accordance with the standards described above. The bill further specifies a procedure that the legislature must follow in considering the bills, although that procedure is not enforceable by the courts. The bill requires either the assembly or the senate to bring the bill to a vote expeditiously, but not less than seven days after the report of the redistricting advisory commission is received and made available to the members of the legislature. The vote must be under a procedure or rule permitting no amendments except those of a purely corrective nature. If the bill is approved by the first house in which it is considered, the bill must expeditiously be brought to a vote in the second house under a similar procedure or rule.

If neither of the bills delivered by the LRB is approved by both the assembly and the senate, the chief clerk of the house that failed to approve the bill must transmit to the LRB information on why the plan was not approved by that house. The LRB must then prepare identical bills embodying a second plan of legislative redistricting, taking into account the reasons transmitted to the LRB by the legislature, or, if applicable, by the governor by veto message, insofar as it is possible to do so while complying with the standards described above. The LRB must deliver the bill to the majority leader of the senate and the speaker of the assembly no later than 21 days after the date of the vote by which the senate or the assembly failed to approve the bill initially submitted. This second bill must be expeditiously introduced and brought to a vote not less than seven days after the date of introduction, in the same manner as prescribed for the initial bill.

If the second bill is similarly rejected by at least one house, the same procedures apply to the preparation of subsequent bills, except that no plan may be considered after January 31 of the even-numbered year following the census. Under the bill, plans submitted to the legislature may only be passed by a bipartisan vote.

The bill also provides exceptions to this process to account for variations in the timing of the release of federal census data. In addition, notwithstanding other provisions in the bill, the bill authorizes the creation of a redistricting advisory commission after the effective date of the bill in order to prepare new plans on or before January 1, 2024.

Required contents of redistricting bills The LRB must ensure that each bill embodying a redistricting plan it draws contains specified conventions to apply wherever territory in a plan is described by geographic boundaries. Also, each such bill must provide that the bill first applies, with respect to regular elections, to offices filled at the next occurring general election and, with respect to special or recall elections, to offices filled or contested on or after the date of the next occurring general election.

Challenge based on population inequality If an action is brought challenging a legislative redistricting plan adopted under the procedure established in the bill on the basis of an excessive population variance among senate or assembly districts, the legislature has the burden of justifying any variance in excess of 1 percent between the population of a senate or assembly district and the applicable ideal district population.