SF2308 Summary

• Establishes redistricting principles for Minnesota legislative and congressional districts to promote fair and open processes that limit political bias and self-serving district drawings.

• Sets mandatory districting criteria prioritized in order: numbering standards, nesting requirements, prohibition on partisan intent, population equality (within 1% for legislative districts), contiguity, protection of American Indian reservations, preservation of political subdivisions, compliance with voting rights laws for minority populations, preservation of communities of interest, compactness, and preservation of prior district cores.

• Requires comprehensive evaluation of redistricting plans by legislative committees based on five measures: preservation of communities of interest, district compactness scores, correspondence between voter preferences and district partisan composition over the last ten years, equitable incumbent competition impacts, and compliance with established principles.

• Mandates publication of detailed reports for each redistricting plan including population equality, voting age population data for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color populations, contiguity analysis, compactness measurements using nine different metrics, political subdivision splits, American Indian reservation splits, communities of interest preservation, prior district cores, incumbent locations, and plan components.

• Effective upon enactment and applies to plans drawn before 2030 census data is released to the state.