On August 12, New York Governor David Paterson signed a budget bill that incorporates the language of S6725A. See the text of that bill here.
The new law provides that if the U.S. Census Bureau counts prisoners at their prison address in the 2010 census, then state prison authorities must determine the pre-incarceration address of each prisoner, and report it to another state agency. That other state agency will then calculate the population of each locality, under the assumption that each prisoner lives at his or her residence prior to being imprisoned. If the prisoner lived outside New York state before being incarcerated, he or she won’t be counted at all, for purposes of New York state redistricting.
Because U.S. House and state legislative districts must have approximately equal populations, the result of this policy will be to decrease the population (for redistricting purposes) of a few low-population upstate counties that have tens of thousands of prisoners. Thanks to Bill Van Allen for this news and for providing the bill number.
Unfortunately, the US Census still counted prisoners at their place of incarceration in 2010, but as this paragraph from Prisoners of the Census director Peter Wagner states, the Bureau is going to speed up release of prisoner data so that jurisdictions that choose to, can use the figures in their redistricting process:
“While it is too late for the Census Bureau to alter its count of incarcerated individuals for the 2010 Census, the Bureau recently announced the accelerated release of national prison count data. Those figures will more readily allow states to adjust their prisoner counts in time for state and local redistricting efforts in 2011. And the reforms passed in New York, Maryland, and Delaware, as well as the over 100 counties nationwide that already remove prison populations from their population counts for redistricting purposes, should help build momentum for the Census Bureau to alter its count on a nationwide basis prior to the next decennial census.”
The SCOTUS party hack MORONS can NOT detect that inside a sovereign State that ONLY Electors-Voters legally vote — NOT children, folks in jail, mental folks, illegal aliens, etc.
Total Votes / Total Seats = EQUAL votes for each seat winner.
How brain dead is *politics* in the nearly dead U.S.A. regime ??