SLC Special Series Report Drawing the Map: Redistricting in the South Prepared by Daniel J. O’Connor III for the Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Governments Drawing the Map: Redistricting in the South A Special Series Report of the Southern Legislative Conference © Copyright August 2000 Southern Office The Council of State Governments 3355 Lenox Road NE Suite 1050 Atlanta, Georgia 30326 404/266-1271 Colleen Cousineau, Executive Director This Special Series Report was prepared by Daniel J. OConnor III for the Southern Legislative Conference of The Council of State Governments, under the Chairmanship of Speaker Jody Richards, Kentucky. Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Forces That Have Shaped Reapportionment in the South ........................................ 3 The 1960s—“One person, one vote” and the Voting Rights Act ............................................ 3 Table 1: Partisan Composition of Southern State Legisltures after the 1962 Election ..... 5 Table 2: House of Representatives District Sizes, Southern States, 1964 ........................ 6 Table 3: State Senate Average District Sizes, Southern States, 1964 ............................... 7 Efforts to circumvent the Court’s “one person, one vote” ruling ............................................ 10 Voting Rights Act of 1965: Southern voter registration and electoral districts come under federal scrutiny .............................................................................................. 11 Table 4: 1964 Voter Registration Data—Selected SLC States ......................................... 12 The 1970s—Renewal of the Voting Rights Act and Challenges to Multimember Districts ...................................................................................................... 14 Multimember districts come under scrutiny ..................................................................... 15 The 1980s: The Voting Rights Act, Multimember Districts and Political Gerrymandering ................................................................................................................ 17 The 1990s: Racially-drawn districts and Undercounting ......................................................... 21 The Number of Congressional and State Legislative Seats at Stake in the South ................................................................................................. 24 Congressional Seats at Stake ....................................................................................................24 Table 5: Number of U.S. House Seats in SLC States, 1952-1992 ................................... 25 Table 6: Population growth in the SLC region between 1990-1999 ................................ 26 State Legislative Seats at stake and timeframe for redrawing districts .................................... 28 Redistricting 101: State Profiles and Projections for 2000-2001 ........................... 30 Table 7: Partisan control, Southern state legislatures (June 2000) .................................. 30 Table 8: Southern State Legislators on the November 2000 Ballot................................. 31 Southern States Redistricting Highlights: 1990 and Beyond .................................... 32 Alabama ................................................................................................................................... 33 Arkansas ................................................................................................................................... 34 Florida ...................................................................................................................................... 35 Georgia ..................................................................................................................................... 37 Kentucky .................................................................................................................................. 39 Louisiana .................................................................................................................................. 40 Maryland .................................................................................................................................. 41 Mississippi ................................................................................................................................ 42 Missouri .................................................................................................................................... 43 North Carolina .......................................................................................................................... 44 Oklahoma ................................................................................................................................. 46 South Carolina .......................................................................................................................... 47 Tennessee: ................................................................................................................................ 48 Texas ........................................................................................................................................ 49 Virginia..................................................................................................................................... 51 West Virginia ........................................................................................................................... 53 2001-2002 Redistricting: Some Questions Still to be Answered ............................. 54 How will minorities fare this time? .......................................................................................... 54 Will Republicans find redistricting as beneficial to them as it was in the 1990s? ................... 55 What impact will term limits have on redistricting? ................................................................ 58 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 59 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................... 61 Books and Articles ................................................................................................................... 61 Newspapers .............................................................................................................................. 62 Web Sites .................................................................................................................................. 62 Endnotes ....................................................................................................................................... 63 Introduction While the beginning of the year 2000 was the occasion of lavish festivities throughout America and the rest of the world, to the federal government, the advent of a new year brought a more immediate concern and task, that being to conduct the decennial census. Since 1790, the United States, as required by Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, has conducted a census every 10 years, tabulating the nation’s population for the purpose of allocating congressional districts among the states. Although judging from recent television advertisements, the census these days may seem to be important largely for the purpose of allocating federal funds to state and local governments, the data from the census still is used to allocate congressional seats among the 50 states and is used by the states to redraw the boundaries of political districts such as state legislative lines, city council lines and the like. Although the census response date was April 1, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce has until December 31 of this year to report the total population by state to the president. By April 1 of next year, the secretary also must report census results to those responsible for state legislative redistricting and to the governors, with this data containing population figures for areas within the state. The April 1 reports will provide the basis for state and local redistricting efforts, along with realignment of congressional districts within each state. With many states and localities claiming that undercounting of residents in 1990 cost them federal dollars and seats in Congress, extra efforts are being made during this decennial census to minimize any undercount. With the release of detailed census data, states next year and lasting probably into 2002 will be busy redrawing the boundaries of their congressional, state and local legislative districts. While not diminishing the importance of the presidential and vice presidential contests this fall, the only offices on the ballot in every state and the District of Columbia, the degree to which either Bush or Gore will be successful in obtaining congressional approval of their agenda rests not only on congressional elections this year but also on congressional redistricting conducted by state legislatures in 2001 and 2002. In other words, the lines drawn by state legislatures could have a major impact on which party will control the House for the 2002-2010 election cycles. “One of the biggest fears of the national Democratic party is that we win the House in 2000, only to lose it back in 2002,” because of new Republican-leaning