Various interesting election law bills in the U.S. House of Representatives have mostly continued to gain co-sponsors. Below are the number of additional co-sponsors added since June 30, for various bills:
HR 2499 (vote on Puerto Rican status) has gained five co-sponsors since June 30.
HR 2894 (paper trail for vote-counting machines) has gained one.
HR 3025 (requiring states to use bipartisan commissions to draw U.S. House boundaries) has gained two.
HR 1503 (requiring presidential candidates to submit a copy of a birth certificate with the FEC) has gained three.
HR 1826 (public funding for congressional candidates) has gained one.
Re: HR3025 . . . it would be nice if someone up on that hill realized bipartisan is still partisan.
Also, I’m intrigued by the criteria for eligibility. (A) looks like it requires you to have been a resident of that same state for two or possibly four years. And (C) reads to me as if it wants to try to make sure people aren’t on the commission to draw up districts for themselves — but doesn’t do it. (Unless somebody else can read it differently, or find something in “Section 22a” that explains it differently.)
jalp (of, but not speaking for, GPMI)
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SEC. 4. INDEPENDENT REDISTRICTING COMMISSION.
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(a) Administrative Matters-
(3) ELIGIBILITY- An individual is eligible to serve as a member of an independent redistricting commission if–
(A) as of the date of appointment, the individual is registered to vote in elections for Federal office held in the State, and was registered to vote in the 2 most recent general elections for Federal office held in the State;
(B) the individual did not hold public office or run as a candidate for election for public office, or serve as an employee of a political party or candidate for election for public office, at any time during the 4-year period ending on the December 31 preceding the date of appointment; and
(C) the individual certifies that he or she will not run as a candidate for the office of Representative in the Congress until after the next apportionment of Representatives under section 22(a) of the Act entitled `An Act to provide for the fifteenth and subsequent decennial censuses and to provide for an apportionment of Representatives in Congress’, approved June 18, 1929 (2 U.S.C. 2a).
Congress didn’t apportion the House of Representatives following the 1920 census. As the 1930 census approached, they finally passed a law that provided for the automatic apportionment following every census.
So what section (C) is attempting to do is to prevent someone who serves on a redistricting commission from running for Congress until after the following census and apportionment.
It isn’t constitutional since it is attempting to introduce a qualification for Congress. It is no different to say that if someone is a member of a redistricting commission in 2011, they can’t run for Congress from 2012 to 2020; and to say if they want to be a member of the redistricting commission in 2011, they have to certify that they won’t run for Congress from 2012 to 2020.