HJR 201 Summary

• Proposes constitutional amendments to establish an independent commission responsible for drawing state senatorial, state representative, and congressional district boundaries, removing this power from the Legislature.

• Commission members must be registered voters with same political party affiliation or no party affiliation for previous 5 years and voted in previous two statewide elections; disqualifies state/federal officials, political party employees, lobbyists, and their financial associates.

• Auditor General randomly selects commission members from a candidate pool (two-thirds from major parties equally divided, one-third from minor parties and unaffiliated) after Senate and House majority and minority leaders eliminate equal numbers of candidates.

• Commission must file redistricting plans for senatorial districts (30-40), representative districts (80-120), and congressional districts by second year following decennial census; if commission fails, Attorney General petitions Supreme Court to establish districts.

• Establishes standards for all districts prohibiting partisan or incumbent favoritism, protecting racial and language minorities' voting rights, requiring contiguity, near-equal population, compactness, and utilization of existing political/geographical boundaries where feasible; amendment applies to 2020 census and thereafter.