Assemblyman John Wisniewski, the Democratic co-chairman of the New Jersey Reapportionment Commission, on Tuesday invited residents to visit the commission’s new website and attend two upcoming public hearings to make their opinions known.
“This is a once-a-decade process that is of vital importance to the future of our state,” said Wisniewski (D-Middlesex). “This process will help determine the direction of public policy in New Jersey for the next 10 years. It’s crucial that everybody have their voices heard and help ensure we get a legislative map that is fair to every New Jerseyan and enables a Legislature that actually looks like our state.”
The web site can be found by visiting:
http://www.apportionmentcommission.org/default.asp.
Upcoming public hearings are slated for:
· 6 p.m. Wednesday in the 14th Floor Conference Center at the Essex County Leroy Smith Public Safety Building at 60 W. Market St. in Newark.
· 1 p.m. Sunday in the Scott Ring Room, 2nd Floor, Culinary Conference Center, 161 Newkirk St. at Hudson County Community College in Jersey City.
“This map must be constitutional,” said Wisniewski. “It must be forward-looking. And it must create a Legislature attuned to your lives and needs. That’s why your input is needed.”
Click Read More below for more on the NJ redistricting process:
NEW JERSEY STATE CONSTITUTION 1947 (UPDATED THROUGH AMENDMENTS ADOPTED IN NOVEMBER, 2010)
ARTICLE IV- LEGISLATIVE
SECTION II *
1. The Senate shall be composed of forty senators apportioned among Senate districts as nearly as may be according to the number of their inhabitants as reported in the last preceding decennial census of the United States and according to the method of equal proportions. Each Senate district shall be composed, wherever practicable, of one single county, and, if not so practicable, of two or more contiguous whole counties.
2. Each senator shall be elected by the legally qualified voters of the Senate district, except that if the Senate district is composed of two or more counties and two senators are apportioned to the district, one senator shall be elected by the legally qualified voters of each Assembly district. Each senator shall be elected for a term beginning at noon of the second Tuesday in January next following his election and ending at noon of the second Tuesday in January four years thereafter, except that each senator, to be elected for a term beginning in January of the second year following the year in which a decennial census of the United States is taken, shall be elected for a term of two years.
3. The General Assembly shall be composed of eighty members. Each Senate district to which only one senator is apportioned shall constitute an Assembly district. Each of the remaining Senate districts shall be divided into Assembly districts equal in number to the number of senators apportioned to the Senate district. The Assembly districts shall be composed of contiguous territory, as nearly compact and equal in the number of their inhabitants as possible, and in no event shall each such district contain less than eighty per cent nor more than one hundred twenty per cent of one-fortieth of the total number of inhabitants of the State as reported in the last preceding decennial census of the United States. Unless necessary to meet the foregoing requirements, no county or municipality shall be divided among Assembly districts unless it shall contain more than one-fortieth of the total number of inhabitants of the State, and no county or municipality shall be divided among a number of Assembly districts larger than one plus the whole number obtained by dividing the number of inhabitants in the county or municipality by one-fortieth of the total number of inhabitants of the State.
4. Two members of the General Assembly shall be elected by the legally qualified voters of each Assembly district for terms beginning at noon of the second Tuesday in January next following their election and ending at noon of the second Tuesday in January two years thereafter.
(cf: Article IV, Section II, paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4 amended effective December 8, 1966)
* Please note that various provisions of Section II have been modified by subsequent court rulings. Currently, there are 40 legislative districts, with one senator and two members of the General Assembly elected from each district.
SECTION III
1. After the next and every subsequent decennial census of the United States, the Senate districts and Assembly districts shall be established, and the senators and members of the General Assembly shall be apportioned among them, by an Apportionment Commission consisting of ten members, five to be appointed by the chairman of the State committee of each of the two political parties whose candidates for Governor receive the largest number of votes at the most recent gubernatorial election. Each State chairman, in making such appointments, shall give due consideration to the representation of the various geographical areas of the State. Appointments to the Commission shall be made on or before November 15 of the year in which such census is taken and shall be certified by the Secretary of State on or before December 1 of that year. The Commission, by a majority of the whole number of its members, shall certify the establishment of Senate and Assembly districts and the apportionment of senators and members of the General Assembly to the Secretary of State within one month of the receipt by the Governor of the official decennial census of the United States for New Jersey, or on or before February 1 of the year following the year in which the census is taken, whichever date is later.
2. If the Apportionment Commission fails so to certify such establishment and apportionment to the Secretary of State on or before the date fixed or if prior thereto it determines that it will be unable so to do, it shall so certify to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Jersey and he shall appoint an eleventh member of the Commission. The Commission so constituted, by a majority of the whole number of its members, shall, within one month after the appointment of such eleventh member, certify to the Secretary of State the establishment of Senate and Assembly districts and the apportionment of senators and members of the General Assembly.
3. Such establishment and apportionment shall be used thereafter for the election of members of the Legislature and shall remain unaltered until the following decennial census of the United States for New Jersey shall have been received by the Governor.
(cf: Article IV, Section III, paragraphs 1, 2, 3 amended effective December 8, 1966)
Even more info. at :
http://www.apportionmentcommission.org/default.asp.
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