LOUISIANA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                PDF Version

SUBCOMMITTEE ON REAPPORTIONMENT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOUSE AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS

RULES FOR REDISTRICTING

Adopted June 27, 2001

To promote the development of a constitutionally acceptable redistricting plan, the committee adopts the following rules for itself, declaring the same to constitute minimally acceptable criteria for redistricting of the House of Representatives, Congress, the Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.

I. CRITERIA

A. All redistricting plans shall provide for single-member districts.

B. All redistricting plans for the House of Representatives, the Supreme Court, the Public Service Commission, and the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education shall provide for an absolute deviation of population within plus or minus five percent of the ideal district population as follows:

(1) House of Representatives: 42,561 (40,433 to 44,689)

(2) Supreme Court: 638,425 (606,504 to 670,346)

(3) Public Service Commission : 893,795 (849,106 to 938,484)

(4) Board of Elementary & Secondary Education : 558,622 (530,691 to 586,553)

C. All redistricting plans for Congress shall provide that each congressional district shall have a population as nearly equal to 638,425 as practicable.

D. All redistricting plans shall contain whole election precincts established pursuant to R.S. 18:532 and 532.1.

E. All redistricting plans shall provide that each district is composed of contiguous geography.

F. All redistricting plans shall respect the recognized political boundaries and natural geography of this state, to the extent practicable.

G. All redistricting plans shall comply with applicable state and federal statutory and constitutional law and jurisprudence.

H. In order to minimize voter confusion, due consideration shall be given to traditional district alignments.

II. POPULATION DATA

The P.L. 94-171 data released by the United States Bureau of the Census, as validated through the data verification program of the designated staff of the House and Senate, shall be the population data used for evaluation of proposed redistricting plans.

(R.S. 18:1906)

The committee seeks active and informed public participation in all of its activities. The committee intends to provide for the widest range of public information about its deliberations and full opportunity for citizens to make suggestions and recommendations to the committee all in accordance with the policies of the House of Representatives and the provisions of law relative to open meetings and public records.

A. All speakers shall conduct themselves in a decorous manner.

B. Persons speaking are encouraged to limit their presentations to three minutes each, unless other time limitations are set by the chairman and in such case, persons speaking shall adhere to such limitations.

C. It is within the discretion of the chairman to entertain motions while testimony is pending.

D. These rules shall supplement the applicable Rules of Order of the House of Representatives and the applicable committee rules of the Committee on House and Governmental Affairs.