Opinion ID: 2154803
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Petitioners' Plan

Text: The petitioners assert their plan is a least change approach, in which they endeavored to maintain constituency consistency to the greatest extent practicable. They aver that the overall range of deviation from the ideal senate district population in their plan is 4%. The petitioners' plan is flawed because it does not rest entirely upon the federal census data, as required by law. Our State Constitution establishes only one yardstick as a legislative guide in making an apportionment. That yardstick is the last general census of the inhabitants of the state taken by authority of the United States or of this state. McGovern v. Secretary of State, 138 N.H. 128, 131, 635 A.2d 498 (1993) (quotation omitted). While data from the federal census (referred to as PL 94-171 census data) reflects ward populations based upon the ward lines in effect as of April 1, 2000, some of the data used by the petitioners reflect ward populations based upon the ward lines changed after April 1, 2000. Some of the ward populations used by the petitioners are not the same as the ward populations contained in the PL 94-171 census data. For example, the petitioners use an adjusted population of 9,088 for Manchester ward 6, while the population for Manchester ward 6 is 10,678 in the PL 94-171 census data. Thus, there are some discrepancies between the petitioners' ward populations and the PL 94-171 census data ward populations. The petitioners used the PL 94-171 census data for all city wards except those in the cities of Claremont, Rochester, Manchester, Keene, Nashua and Dover. When the PL 94-171 data is substituted for those cities, the overall range of population deviation is actually 7.92%. In addition, the petitioners' plan changes the senate districts for 32.89% of the State's population (406,493 citizens) and district 7 is no longer comprised of contiguous territory. The senate president argues that the petitioners' plan artificially divides the cities of Concord, Laconia and Dover for partisan political advantage. The senate president also argues that some of the districts in the petitioners' plan are oddly shaped and are not comprised of contiguous territory for the sole purpose of protecting Democrat incumbents and targeting Republican incumbents. For instance, one district contains both a ward of the city of Manchester and a ward of the city of Nashua, even though these wards do not touch by land, but instead border a common waterway. Even if the senate president's criticisms are accurate, we note that while these types of political considerations may be permissible in legislatively-implemented redistricting plans, they have no place in a court-ordered remedial plan. See Wilson, 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 379, 823 P.2d at 576-77; see also Wyche v. Madison Parish Police Jury, 769 F.2d 265, 268 (5th Cir.1985) (per curiam).