Opinion ID: 867312
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Districts shall comply with the United States

Text: constitution and the United States voting rights act; B. Congressional districts shall have equal population to the extent practicable, and state legislative districts shall have equal population to the extent practicable; C. Districts shall be geographically compact and contiguous to the extent practicable; D. District boundaries shall respect communities of interest to the extent practicable; E. To the extent practicable, district lines shall use visible geographic features, city, town and county boundaries, and undivided census tracts; F. To the extent practicable, competitive districts should be favored where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals. Id. The Commission must exclude “[p]arty registration and voting history data . . . from the initial phase of the mapping process[,]” but may use that data to “test maps for compliance 5 with the above goals.” Id. art. 4, pt. 2, § 1(15). The Commission must “advertise a draft map” of both congressional and legislative districts to the public for at least thirty days to permit public comment. Id. art. 4, pt. 2, § 1(16). During the comment period, “[e]ither or both bodies of the legislature may . . . make recommendations to the independent redistricting commission[,]” and those recommendations “shall be considered by the independent redistricting commission.” Id. The Commission then establishes final district boundaries. Id.