AB303: Bill Text

AB303,16,5 (8) In preparing any redistricting plan, the legislative reference bureau shall be strictly nonpartisan. No district may be drawn for the purpose of favoring a political party, incumbent legislator or member of Congress, or other person or group or, except to the extent required under sub. (1), for the purpose of augmenting or diluting the voting strength of a language or racial minority group. Except as provided in sub. (10), in establishing districts, no use shall be made of any of the following data:

AB303,16,6 (a) The residence addresses of incumbent legislators or members of Congress.

AB303,16,7 (b) Political affiliations of registered voters.

AB303,16,8 (c) Previous election results.

AB303,16,10 (d) Demographic information except as necessary to meet the requirements of subs. (1) and (10).

AB303,16,19 (9) The number of assembly districts in any redistricting plan may not be less than 54 nor more than 100. The number of senate districts in any redistricting plan may not be more than one-third nor less than one-fourth of the number of assembly districts. Each senate district shall contain only whole assembly districts. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, to the extent possible, each congressional district shall contain only whole senate districts. The other standards specified in this section shall take precedence where a conflict arises between those standards and the requirement of including only whole senate districts within a congressional district.

AB303,16,25 (10) In preparing any redistricting plan, the legislative reference bureau shall test the efficiency gap and competitiveness of each district and make the test results available to the public, including publishing the results on its Internet site, no later than 72 hours prior to the first public hearing on the proposed plan. The legislative reference bureau may use the data described under sub. (8) (b) to (d) to perform the tests under this subsection.

AB303,17,2 4.008 Required provisions in redistricting bills. Each bill delivered under s. 4.006 shall provide all of the following:

AB303,17,4 (1) That, wherever territory is described in the bill by geographic boundaries, the following conventions are used:

AB303,17,6 (a) Each bound continues to the intersection with the bound next named, or to the intersection with a straight-line extension of such bound.

AB303,17,8 (b) If the bound is a street, it follows the center line of the street or the center line of the street extended.

AB303,17,10 (c) If the bound is a railroad right-of-way, it follows the center line of the railroad right-of-way.

AB303,17,12 (d) If the bound is a river or stream, it follows the center of the main channel of such river or stream.

AB303,17,13 (e) If the bound follows a municipal boundary, it coincides with such boundary.

AB303,17,17 (2) That the bill first applies, with respect to regular elections, to offices filled at the next occurring general election after the bill takes effect and, with respect to special or recall elections, to offices filled or contested on or after the date of that general election.

AB303,18,3 4.0085 Challenge based on population inequality; burden of proof. If an action is brought challenging a legislative redistricting plan under this subchapter on the basis of an excessive population variance among senate or assembly districts established in the plan, the legislature has the burden of justifying any variance in excess of 10 percent between the population of a senate or assembly district and the applicable ideal district population. If an action is brought challenging a congressional redistricting plan under this subchapter on the basis of an excessive population variance among congressional districts established in the plan, the legislature has the burden of justifying any variance in excess of 1 percent between the population of a congressional district and the applicable ideal district population.

AB303,5 Section 5 . 5.15 (4) (a) of the statutes is amended to read:

AB303,18,23 5.15 (4) (a) Except as provided in par. (c), the division ordinance or resolution shall number all wards in the municipality with unique whole numbers in consecutive order, beginning with the number one, shall designate the polling place for each ward, and shall describe the boundaries of each ward consistent with the conventions set forth in s. 4.003 4.008 (1). The ordinance or resolution shall be accompanied by a list of the block numbers used by the U.S. bureau of the census that are wholly or partly contained within each ward, with any block numbers partly contained within a ward identified, and a map of the municipality which illustrates the revised ward boundaries. If the legislature, in an act redistricting legislative districts under article IV, section 3, of the constitution, or in redistricting congressional districts, establishes a district boundary within a municipality that does not coincide with the boundary of a ward established under the ordinance or resolution of the municipality, the municipal governing body shall, no later than April 10 of the 2nd year following the year of the federal decennial census on which the act is based, amend the ordinance or resolution to the extent required to effect the act. The amended ordinance or resolution shall designate the polling place for any ward that is created to effect the legislative act. Nothing in this paragraph shall be construed to compel a county or city to alter or redraw supervisory or aldermanic districts.

AB303,6 Section 6. 13.49 of the statutes is created to read:

AB303,18,25 13.49 Redistricting advisory commission. (1) Definitions. In this section:

AB303,19,1 (a) “Chief election officer" means the elections commission administrator.

AB303,19,2 (b) “Four selecting authorities" means all of the following:

AB303,19,3 1. The majority leader of the senate.

AB303,19,4 2. The minority leader of the senate.

AB303,19,5 3. The speaker of the assembly.

AB303,19,6 4. The minority leader of the assembly.

AB303,19,7 (c) “Partisan public office" means any of the following:

AB303,19,9 1. The office of governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, attorney general, state senator, or state representative to the assembly.

AB303,19,11 2. A county office that is filled by an election process involving nomination and election of candidates on a partisan basis.

AB303,19,13 (d) “Political party office" means an elective office in a political party, as defined in s. 11.0101 (26), or in a national political party.

AB303,19,19 (e) “Relative" means an individual who is related to the person in question as father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, grandfather, grandmother, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, or half sister.

AB303,20,3 (2) General provisions. (a) Not later than February 15 of the first year following the decennial federal census, a temporary redistricting advisory commission is created consisting of 5 members. Each of the 4 selecting authorities shall certify to the chief election officer the selecting authority's appointment of a person to serve on the commission. Within 30 days after the last selecting authority has certified his or her appointment, but not later than February 15 of the first year following the decennial federal census, the 4 commission members so appointed shall select, by a vote of at least 3 members, and certify to the chief election officer the 5th commission member, who shall serve as chairperson.

AB303,20,5 (b) No individual may be appointed to the redistricting advisory commission who satisfies any of the following:

AB303,20,7 1. The individual is not an eligible elector of this state at the time of the appointment.

AB303,20,8 2. The individual holds partisan public office or political party office.

AB303,20,10 3. The individual is a relative of or is employed by a member of the legislature or of Congress or is employed directly by the legislature or Congress.

AB303,20,17 (c) Members of the redistricting advisory commission appointed by a selecting authority shall be reimbursed from the appropriation account under s. 20.765 (1) (a) or (b), depending upon the house in which that member's appointing authority holds office, for actual and necessary expenses incurred in performance of duties as a commission member. The member who is not appointed by a selecting authority shall be reimbursed from the appropriation under s. 20.765 (1) (a) for actual and necessary expenses incurred in performance of duties as a commission member.

AB303,20,19 (d) A vacancy on the redistricting advisory commission shall be filled as provided in s. 17.20 (1) within 15 days after the vacancy occurs.

AB303,20,21 (e) Each redistricting advisory commission terminates upon complying with sub. (3).

AB303,20,22 (3) Duties. The redistricting advisory commission shall do all of the following:

AB303,21,2 (a) If requested to do so by the legislative reference bureau, provide direction to the legislative reference bureau concerning any decision the legislative reference bureau must make in preparing a redistricting plan under subch. I of ch. 4 for which no clearly applicable guideline is provided under s. 4.007.

AB303,21,9 (b) Oversee the work of legislative reference bureau employees engaged in preparing a redistricting plan under subch. I of ch. 4 and may enter into contracts for hiring experts to assist in the preparing of such plans. The commission may enter into a contract to retain experts for preparing a redistricting plan only with the approval of three-fourths of the members of the commission and may terminate a contract employee only with the approval of three-fourths of the members of the commission.

AB303,21,12 (c) Upon delivery by the legislative reference bureau of a bill embodying a redistricting plan as required under s. 4.006, make available to the public at the earliest feasible time all of the following information:

AB303,21,13 1. Copies of the bill.

AB303,21,14 2. Maps illustrating the plan.

AB303,21,16 3. A summary of the standards prescribed under s. 4.007 for development of the plan.

AB303,21,18 4. A statement of the population of each district included in the plan and the relative deviation of each district population from the ideal district population.

AB303,21,20 (d) Upon delivery by the legislative reference bureau of an initial bill embodying a redistricting plan as required under s. 4.006 (1), do all of the following:

AB303,21,25 1. As expeditiously as reasonably possible, schedule and conduct public hearings, in different geographic regions of the state, on the plan embodied in the bill. No more than one public hearing may be held in the city of Madison, and at least one public hearing shall be held in each congressional district of the state. The commission shall hold public hearings on weekends whenever it is practicable.

AB303,22,7 2. Following the hearings held under subd. 1., promptly prepare and submit to the legislature in the manner provided under s. 13.172 (2) a report summarizing information and testimony received by the commission in the course of the hearings. The report may include any comments and conclusions that the commission's members deem appropriate concerning the information and testimony received at the hearings or otherwise presented to the commission. The report shall be treated in the same manner as a report submitted under s. 13.172 (2).

AB303,22,11 (4) Confidentiality. (a) Except as provided in par. (b), the redistricting advisory commission may establish policies limiting the information that the legislative reference bureau may provide to persons outside of the bureau staff concerning any redistricting plan prepared under subch. I of ch. 4.

AB303,22,19 (b) Any policy established under par. (a) does not apply to a redistricting plan after a bill embodying that plan is delivered by the legislative reference bureau as required under s. 4.006 or to population data furnished to the legislative reference bureau by the U.S. bureau of the census. Notwithstanding s. 13.92 (1) (c), any draft maps, along with the data sets used to create them, that are produced by the legislative reference bureau in the course of its work in preparing a bill under s. 4.006 shall be open to public inspection and copying under s. 19.35 (1) and made available on the Internet site of the legislative reference bureau as soon as they are produced.

AB303,7 Section 7. Initial applicability.

AB303,22,22 (1) This act first applies to redistricting plans based on the 2020 decennial federal census.

AB303,22,23 (End)