Initiative Constitutional Amendment
Final Initiative Text v10/08/99

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FIRST: This measure shall be known and may be cited as “Fair Vote 2K”

SECOND: The People of the State of California find and declare that:

a) The proper objective of electoral districting is fair and equal representation of every voter in the state and federal legislatures.
b) Electoral districts should be drawn without regard to race, creed, color, sex, national origin, party registration or voting history.
c) The ideal districts are those which are most nearly equal in population and most compactly drawn.
d) That an objective, automated districting process will best serve these objectives.
e) Therefore the voters enact a districting method which automatically establishes districts with populations as equal as practicable and as compact as possible following each decennial census.

Section 1. In the year following the year in which the national census is taken under the direction of Congress at the beginning of each decade, the legislature Secretary of State shall adjust the boundary lines of the Senatorial Senate, Assembly, Congressional, and Board of Equalization districts in conformance with the following standards criteria:

(a) Each district shall consist of contiguous census divisions, as established in the most recent United States decennial census, configured by the accumulation of those divisions whose center point is closest to the center point of each district, solely on the basis of population, without regard to party registration, voting history, race, sex, or national origin.
(b) Each member of the Senate, Assembly, Congress, and the Board of Equalization shall be elected from a single member district.
(c) The population of all districts each district of a particular type shall be reasonably equal not vary more than one percent from the average population of all districts.
(c) Every district shall be contiguous.
(d) Districts of each type shall be numbered consecutively commencing at the northern boundary farthest northwestern point of the State and ending at the southern boundary farthest southeastern point.
(e) The geographical integrity of any city, county, or city and county, or of any geographical region shall be respected to the extent possible without violating the requirements of any other subdivision of this section. Each Senate district shall be comprised of two consecutively numbered Assembly districts and each Board of Equalization district shall consist of 20 consecutively numbered Assembly districts.
(f) This section shall be self executing and shall apply to districting in the year following the national census conducted in the year 2000 and thereafter.
(g) If any provision of this section or any application thereof is found to be in conflict with the United States Constitution or any law of the United States adopted pursuant thereto, that provision or application shall be deemed severable and the remaining provisions and applications of this section shall be given effect without the invalid provisions or application.

FOURTH: Section 21000 of the Elections Code is repealed.

21000. The county elections official in each county shall compile and make available to the Legislature or any appropriate committee of the Legislature any information and statistics that may be necessary for use in connection with the reapportionment of legislative districts, including, but not limited to, precinct maps indicating the boundaries of municipalities, school districts, judicial districts, Assembly districts, senatorial districts and congressional districts, and lists showing the election returns for each precinct in the county at each statewide election. If the county elections official stores the information and statistics in data processing files, he or she shall make the files available, along with whatever documentation shall be necessary in order to allow the use of the files by the appropriate committee of the Legislature and shall retain these files until the next reapportionment has been completed. Each precinct shall be identified according to the census tract or enumeration district in which it is located. In the case of anyprecinct that is divided among two or more census tracts or enumeration districts, the county elections official shall include an estimate of the proportion of the precinct's registered voters in each census tract or enumeration district. If the United States Bureau of the Census divides or alters any census tract or enumeration district between the time of an election and the census upon which the reapportionment is based, the county elections official shall provide whatever corrections or additional information may be necessary to reflect those changes.

FIFTH: Section 21000 is added to the Elections Code, to read:

21000. For the purposes of districting Senate, Assembly, Congressional, and Board of Equalization districts once each decade in the year following the federal decennial census, the Secretary of State shall do all of the following:

a) Determine the average population of for all Assembly districts and all Congressional districts based upon the census.
b) Identify the geographic center point of each census division. “Census division”, as used in this section, means the smallest tract, block or other geographic division of population officially designated by the federal Census Bureau.
c) For each Assembly and Congressional district:

1) Select the unassigned census division which is at the farthest northwest point of the state as the starting base for each district.
2) Assign to the district those census divisions whose center points are closest to the center point of the accumulated district, provided that the resulting district population does not vary from the average district population by more than 1 percent. With each census division assignment, identify the new geographic center point of the accumulated district.
3) Repeat the assignment for all census divisions and electoral districts for Assembly and Congress.
4) If more than one set of assignments for a set of districts complies with the procedures of this subsection, the sequence with the smallest sum of the unsigned percentage of variation from the average population shall be implemented.

d) Consecutively number Assembly and Congressional districts from the farthest northwest to the farthest southeast point of the state.
e) Establish consecutively numbered Senate districts comprised of two consecutively numbered Assembly districts.
f) Establish consecutively numbered Board of Equalization districts comprised of twenty consecutively numbered Assembly districts.

SIXTH: Paragraph (a), Section 21001 of the Elections Code is amended to read:

21001. (a) The Secretary of State shall prepare detailed maps showing the boundaries of any districts established by pursuant to this division on or after January 1, 1991 2001. These maps shall be prepared no later than 90 days following the enactment of any implementation determination of the redistricting plan pursuant to this division, and shall illustrate the boundary lines of every district described in the redistricting plan.

SEVENTH: Section 21002 of the Elections Code is repealed.

21002. Each house of the Legislature shall be a proper party to, and, if not originally named as a party, shall have the right to intervene in, any action involving the validity or application of any statute that provides for changes in the boundaries of any legislative districts of members of that particular house.

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