Legislature(1999 - 2000)
02/10/1999 01:08 PM House JUD
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HOUSE JUDICIARY STANDING COMMITTEE
February 10, 1999
1:08 p.m.
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
OVERVIEW: CENSUS AND REDISTRICTING
TAPE(S)
99-4, SIDE(S) A & B
99-5, SIDE(S) A
CALL TO ORDER
REPRESENTATIVE PETE KOTT, Chairman, convened the House Judiciary
Standing Committee meeting at 1:08 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Committee members present at the call to order were Representatives
Kott, Green, Rokeberg and Kerttula. Representative(s) Croft and
Murkowski arrived as the meeting was in progress.
SUMMARY OF INFORMATION
OVERVIEW: CENSUS AND REDISTRICTING
DWIGHT PERKINS, Deputy Commissioner, Office of the Commissioner,
Department of Labor, came before the committee and introduced
Kathryn Lizik as the program coordinator.
KATHRYN LIZIK, Coordinator, Census and Geographic Information
Network, Department of Labor, came before the committee and gave an
overview on the status of Public Law 94-171, the federal law that
sets up the Census 2000 Redistricting Data Program, and Phase I, II
and III.
MS. LIZIK indicated that Phase I, known as the Block Boundary
Suggestion Program (BBSP), was just completed consisting of
approximately 120,000 blocks. Phase II, known as the Voting
District Project (VTDP), will start mid-March. Phase II will
consist of bringing the existing voting precincts in statute into
conformity with the census blocks. The Department of Labor and
Division of Elections will work together on Phase II and will have
six months to complete the phase. Phase III, known as the Data
Delivery Project (DDP), will be the delivery of the maps and
electronic files to the states sometime between January 1 and April
1, 2001. The data will consist of population by race categories
and 18-year-plus age categories. In addition, there will be
summary levels for every precinct, city boundary, and house
district. The delivery date of the census data will commence the
redistricting clock for the state.
MS. LIZIK further indicated that the cost for Phase I was about
$40,000, and the cost for Phase II will be around $25,000. Mr.
Perkins indicated that at some point the Department of Labor will
be coming forward with a request for funds this year for software
and hardware to complete Phase II.
DANA LATOUR, Administrative Officer, Division of Elections, Office
of the Lieutenant Governor, came before the committee and answered
questions regarding the division's role in the census and
redistricting project. She noted that the division is working on
cleaning up its voter lists in accordance with statute. She
explained the biggest burden to the division begins once the board
has completed its work. At that point, the division will be
charged with making necessary changes to the precincts within the
new district boundaries. The new precincts will then have to be
cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice. The cost to the
division will include additional voter cards and temporary staff.
KATHLEEN STRASBAUGH, Assistant Attorney General, Governmental
Affairs Section, Civil Division, Department of Law, came before the
committee to discuss the pre-clearance by the U.S. Department of
Justice of the constitutional amendment. The U.S. Department of
Justice will be reviewing the amendment in regards to a possible
negative impact on minority voting - a violation of the Voting
Rights Act. She noted that once the Department of Law sends the
amendment, the U.S. Department of Justice can either say yes, no,
or request more information. The Department of Law is anticipating
a request for additional information because of the removal of the
word "civilian" in Article VI, Section 3 of the state constitution.
She does not anticipate a problem with the board selection process,
but that does not preclude a public objection/concern. She noted
that the process will take a few months.
KEVIN JARDELL, Staff to Representative Green, Alaska State
Legislature, came before the committee to discuss the U.S. Supreme
Court's decision regarding sampling versus enumeration. He noted
that there were two arguments made before the court. One referring
to the constitution and one referring to a federal statute. The
court based its decision on the federal statute argument,
therefore, the constitutionality has not been decided. The
decision requires the use of sampling, if feasible, but sampling
numbers cannot be used for congressional apportionment. Thus,
sampling numbers will be used for congressional districts while
enumeration numbers will be used to determine the number of
congressional representatives. The states, however, have the
authority to decide which numbers to use for their own
redistricting. The state of Alaska, in the recent constitutional
amendment, stated that it will use the official census numbers to
keep a board from manipulating numbers and subjecting it to attack.
The U.S. Census Bureau says it will publish the sample numbers as
the official numbers and the enumeration numbers will be disclosed
on its web site. The U.S. Census Bureau is anticipating a 2
percent to 3 percent variance between the sampling and enumeration
numbers.
CHAIRMAN KOTT noted that his staff will draft a letter to the
leadership recommending the establishment of a task force to work
with the Administration on this issue.
COMMITTEE ACTION
The committee took no action.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 2:43 p.m.
NOTE:
The meeting was recorded and handwritten log notes were taken. A
copy of the tape(s) and log notes may be obtained by contacting the
House Records Office at 130 Seward Street, Suite 211, Juneau,
Alaska 99801-1182, (907) 465-2214, and after adjournment of the
second session of the Twenty-first Alaska State Legislature, in the
Legislative Reference Library.
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