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From the Orlando Sentinel Blog:

Even though the redistricting measure wasn’t approved by state lawmakers until the final day of the session, the measure was sent to the Secretary of State’s office ahead of other ballot measures that had been approved days and weeks earlier.

That means the measure – HJR 7231 – will appear on the ballot as Amendment 7. The redistricting amendments pushed by FairDistrictsFlorida.org are Amendment 5 and Amendment 6.

“It makes practical and logical sense to position HJR 7231 with the other reapportionment amendments,’’ said Jaryn Emhof, a spokeswoman for Senate President Jeff Atwater.

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Last Updated on Thursday, 20 May 2010 11:51

From StrausNews.com:

The leaders of New York’s powerful legislative majorities aren’t backing a proposal for independent, nonpartisan redrawing of election district lines aimed at making races more competitive.

Senate Democratic leader John Sampson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver say they plan some changes to the current system that has protected majorities in control of the chambers for decades.

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Last Updated on Friday, 14 May 2010 07:14

Cribbing from the Civic Forum PAC:

Hat tip to Swing State Project for catching the recent goings-on in regard to redistricting in Florida and Illinois.

Here’s the status of redistricting measures currently at issue in Florida, via the Washington Independent’s Jimm Phillips:

The Florida legislature approved a state constitutional amendment yesterday that, like two citizen-sponsored amendments also on the November ballot, aims to change the state’s redistricting rules…

The two citizen-sponsored amendments — one covers state legislative redistricting, the other U.S. congressional — would prevent the legislature from drawing maps that favor incumbents or candidates from a particular political party, and would require districts be compact and contiguous and to follow existing geographic and political boundaries as much as possible. A citizen-sponsored amendment must get enough signatures to equal eight percent of the number of voters in the last presidential election – 676,811 for 2010 – in order to qualify for the ballot.

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 5 May 2010 06:50

From Sunshine State News:

It appears that Floridians will vote in November on competing ballot initiatives on redistricting — and Democrats are divided on which option is better.

More than 1.7 million Floridians signed petitions calling for changes to the ways the Legislature draws up congressional and state legislative seats. Sponsored by Fair Districts Florida, the petitions placed two amendments on the November ballot that require legislators to create geographically compact districts and prohibit them from creating districts that favor certain incumbents or political parties.

Republicans — and some key Democrats — in the Legislature oppose the amendments and have moved their own through committees that would clarify the Fair District measures and have redistricting follow existing federal guidelines.

Democrats from both the House and Senate spoke out against the clarifying amendments on Thursday morning. “There’s no need for it,” said Rep. Perry Thurston of Plantation. “It’s going to cause confusion.”

The Democrats argued that the clarifying amendments would not help minority voters.

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Last Updated on Friday, 23 April 2010 08:18

From the Denver Post:

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Dick Wadhams said the legislation, House Bill 1408, would “change the rules so rural Colorado will essentially be disenfranchised from electing members of Congress.”

Senate Majority Leader John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, and House Majority Leader Paul Weissman, D-Louisville, introduced the bill last week, and Wadhams zeroed in on a provision he said would remove a requirement that the eastern plains and western slope be seen as “communities of interest” and not be split into multiple congressional districts.

But Wadhams also turned his fire on Democratic Secretary of State Bernie Buescher, referring to the redistricting bill as the “Morse-Weissmann-Buescher” bill.

“This is a very disturbing pattern of behavior by Buescher and Democratic legislators who are desperate to rig Colorado elections,” Wadhams said in a statement.

But Rich Coolidge, a spokesman for Buescher, said his boss had not even seen a copy of the bill until this morning.

“We had nothing to do with that,” Coolidge said.

Wadhams scoffed at that.

“That’s funny,” Wadhams said. “He claimed he had nothing to do with the Carroll Acorn Empowerment Act either a couple of weeks ago. Does he support this bill that guts rural Colorado or not?”

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 21 April 2010 08:10