Fair Shape PA

GIS analysis of compactness of new plan

akaplan — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 20:13:25 +0000

Daniel McGlone, Azavea GIS Analyst, has calculated compactness scores for the Legislative Reapportionment Commission’s revised preliminary legislative redistricting plan. He found that the revised plan is, on average, slightly more compact than the final plan that was thrown out by the Supreme Court. But it is still drastically less compact than the plan prepared by Amanda Holt which was the basis for the Court’s ruling.

Click here (Excel file) for a district by district breakdown. The scores are based on a scale of zero to one. The higher the score, the more compact the district is.

Commission adopts revised preliminary plan

akaplan — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 01:39:16 +0000

The Legislative Reapportionment Commission met on Thursday, April 12 and adopted a revised preliminary plan. A public hearing has been set for May 2. Maps and legal descriptions of the revised plan are on the PA Redistricting Commission website.

For a news story about the revised plan please click here.

Continuing Amanda Holt coverage

akaplan — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:54:53 +0000

More coverage on Amanda Holt’s invaluable contribution to the redistricting process in Pennsylvania:

http://radnor.patch.com/articles/redistricting-reformer-speaks-in-villanova?ncid=newsltuspatc00000001

April 12 public meeting for Reapportionment Commission

akaplan — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 03:56:56 +0000

A recent update has occurred on the Pennsylvania Redistricting website. Recent updates are as follows:

April 03, 2012

The Legislative Reapportionment Commission will hold a public meeting on April 12, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the North Office Building.

The Legislative Reapportionment Commission will hold a public meeting on April 12, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the North Office Building. The purpose of this meeting is to consider the adoption of a Preliminary Reapportionment Plan (press release).

Meeting postponed

akaplan — Sat, 03 Mar 2012 18:54:13 +0000

The 2011 Legislative Reapportionment Commission Public Meeting scheduled for Friday, March 2, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 1 of the North Office Building has been postponed. This Public Meeting will be rescheduled for a later date (press release).

via the Pennsylvania Redistricting website.

Public meeting rescheduled for March 2 (Friday)

akaplan — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:38:18 +0000

The February 28, 2012 public meeting of the Legislative Reapportionment Commission has been rescheduled for Friday, March 2, 2012 at 1:00 p.m. in Hearing Room 1 of the North Office Building. The purpose of the meeting is to consider adoption of a Preliminary Reapportionment Plan.

If the current 2001 map is used to elect legislators for the 2012-14 legislative session Pennsylvania’s Latino community will lose out. The plan that was rejected by the PA Supreme Court would have created additional Latino-Majority districts. They rallied in Harrisburg Tuesday demanding fair representation in the PA General Assembly. Read the story here.

Update on primary date problems

akaplan — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 16:49:26 +0000

The 2011 Legislative Reapportionment Commission plans to meet February 22 to propose a new plan in response to the PA Supreme Court finding their adopted plan unconstitutional. The below item from Capitolwire.com suggests no new plan could become law until just before the scheduled April 24 Primary. Unless the Primary is postponed, the legislative portion of the primary will have to be held using the current 2001 districts.

Reapportionment commission staff says next plan faces 60 days of comments, appeals. A new opinion by Legislative Reapportionment Commission counsel Joseph Del Sole says it will be late April before a new state redistricting plan could take effect. The reason is because both the commission and the state Supreme Court have to observe separate 30-day review periods. That means if the commission approves a preliminary plan on Feb. 22, meeting its proposed schedule, then it would hold hearings and could not vote on a final plan for 30 days, as the state constitution requires. The soonest the final plan could then be adopted would be March 23, and then the Supreme Court is required by the the constitution to allot 30 days to allow the filing of appeals. If appeals were filed, the court would have to hold a hearing, and then issue a decision, which some attorneys think could take until May.

Links to all the documents associated with the appeal of the final legislative redistricting plan can be found on the Redistricting Updates section of Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi’s website http://www.senatorpileggi.com/contact.htm.

PA Independent about primary date

akaplan — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:11:48 +0000

The PA Independent has an article detailing the two upcoming paths lawmakers could take regarding the April 24th primary date.

Federal ruling upholding PA Supreme Court order

akaplan — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 06:33:27 +0000

A Federal Judge has ruled that Pennsylvania’s 2001 legislative district maps should be used in the April 24 Primary, thus upholding the PA Supreme Court order. To read the AP report click here.

PA Supreme Court redistricting decision update

akaplan — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:48:11 +0000

PA Supreme Court redistricting decision update

PennLive: Citizen Amanda Holt’s alternative map was cited by the PA Supreme Court as “powerful evidence indeed” that the plan violates the PA Constitution.

PA Independent: Each of the four legislative caucuses will present new maps to the Legislative Reapportionment Commission on February 15 and a final vote will be taken February 22 following which there will be a 30 day period to file any appeals.

Senator Pileggi’s website has posted all documents filed with the PA Supreme Court in connection with the appeals as well as the court order, opinion and dissents.