Proposed constitutional amendment would bar lawmakers from redrawing districts

The Bismark Tribune: A proposed constitutional amendment would strip North Dakota lawmakers of the job of drawing their own legislative districts and give it to an independent commission. North Dakota's League of Women Voters is promoting the measure and wants it on the November ballot, said Lois Ivers Altenburg of Fargo, the organization's president and chairwoman of the initiative campaign. Altenburg said Tuesday that the measure is timely because North Dakota lawmakers are already preparing to draw new districts next year, based on new data being collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. ``I think there's always a lurking feeling that you've got the fox guarding the hen house when you have people who are in office, who want to maintain their position ... deciding the shape of the districts that are going to elect them,'' Altenburg said. ``We want to remove that suspicion.'' The proposed amendment would put an eight-member commission in charge of redistricting. Seven members would be appointed by the chief administrative judges in North Dakota's seven judicial districts. The chairman would be chosen by a committee made up of Democratic and Republican legislative leaders and the chairman of the University of North Dakota's geography department. The commission would be required to hold public hearings. Although lawmakers could protest some aspects of the commission's plan, the panel would not be required to implement lawmakers' suggestions and the Legislature would not vote on any new redistricting plan. Secretary of State Al Jaeger began reviewing the proposed ballot measure Tuesday. He has until July 1 to check it and write a short statement describing what it does, though he cannot change the content.

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