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.