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SECTION 1. ARTICLE OF AMENDMENT
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Article CI of the
Articles of Amendment to the Constitution of the |
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Commonwealth is
hereby annulled, and the following is adopted in place
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thereof:
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Article CI
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The House of
Representatives shall consist of one hundred and
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sixty members,
each of whom shall be elected from one representative
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district. Every representative shall have been an
inhabitant of the district
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for which he or
she is chosen for at least one year at least immediately
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preceding his or
her election and shall cease to represent such district
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when he or she
shall cease to be an inhabitant of the Commonwealth,
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provided, however,
that for the first redistricting following the adoption of
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this article, the
General Court may suspend the residency requirement of
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this section.
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SECTION 2. The Senate shall consist of forty members, each of
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whom shall be
elected from one senatorial district. Every senator shall
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have been an
inhabitant of the Commonwealth for at least five years
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immediately
preceding his or her election and shall be an inhabitant of the
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district for which
he or she has been selected at the time of his or her
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election and shall
cease to represent such senatorial district when he or she
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shall cease to be
an inhabitant of the Commonwealth.
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SECTION 3. The manner of calling and
conducting the elections for
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the choice of
representatives, senators, and councillors, and of ascertaining
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their election,
shall be prescribed by law.
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SECTION 4. The federal census shall be
the basis for determining the
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representative,
senatorial, and governor ’s council districts for the ten-year
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period beginning
with the first Wednesday of the third January following
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the commencement
of the taking of said census.
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SECTION 5. In the year after each census is
commenced, and only in
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that year, an
Independent Redistricting Commission ( “Commission”) shall
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be convened and
shall divide the Commonwealth into one hundred and
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sixty
representative districts, forty senatorial districts, and eight councillor
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districts. All
districts shall comprise contiguous territory, shall be equal in
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population to the
extent required by law, and shall comply with federal
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constitutional and
statutory requirements. No district
shall be drawn for
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the purpose or
with the effect of diluting the voting strength of any group
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based on race,
ethnicity or language minority status, or for the purpose of
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augmenting or
diluting the voting strength of a political party, or any
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individual. In drawing district lines, the Commission
shall not consider
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residential
address, party affiliation, or partisan voting history of any
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individual or
groups of individuals, except to the extent necessary to avoid
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dilution of voting
strength based on race, ethnicity or language minority
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status. In addition, to the maximum extent
possible, district boundaries
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shall be drawn so
as to: (1) maintain the unity of
well-defined municipal
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neighborhoods; (2)
observe municipal boundaries; (3) establish senatorial
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districts that follow representative district boundaries; (4) establish
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councillor districts that follow representative district boundaries and (5)
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promote geographic compactness of districts. If it is not possible to draw
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district
boundaries that fully comply with these criteria while also
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complying with the mandatory requirements set forth herein, then they
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shall be drawn to optimize the criteria in the order of priority set forth
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hereinabove. The Commission shall also consider
communities of interest
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in determining
which cities, towns, or neighborhoods thereof to aggregate
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into a single
district.
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SECTION 6. The Commission shall consist of seven
member
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commissioners. On or before January 15 of the year
following the
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commencement of
the federal census, the following offices shall each
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appoint one member
of the Commission: the Governor of the
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Commonwealth, who
shall appoint a dean or professor of law or political
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science or
government at an institution of higher learning in the
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Commonwealth; the
Attorney General of the Commonwealth, who shall
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appoint a retired
justice who resides in the Commonwealth; and the
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Secretary of the
Commonwealth, who shall appoint an expert in civil
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rights law who is
a resident of the Commonwealth.
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By the same date, the House Speaker,
the House Minority Leader, the
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Senate President,
and the Senate Minority Leader shall each nominate
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three individuals. The appointees chosen by the Governor,
Attorney
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General, and
Secretary of the Commonwealth shall then select one of the
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three nominees
named by each said official.
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If nominations or appointments are not
made by January 15 of such
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year, the
office responsible for making the
appointment or nominations
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shall forfeit its
rights under this section and the remaining direct
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appointees shall
then make an appointment to fill the vacancy.
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Nominations and appointments shall
reflect the geographic, racial,
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ethnic, gender,
and age diversity of the Commonwealth to the maximum
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extent feasible
and shall be selected on the basis of civic involvement and
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knowledge of
redistricting policy, civil rights, political science,
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demographics or
statistics, election expertise, voting rights, community
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organizing, or
law. No person nominated or appointed
to the Commission,
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in the five years
preceding such nomination or appointment, shall have
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held Congressional,
state legislative or statewide elective office, or shall
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have served as
mayor or city councillor of a city in the Commonwealth,
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governor ’s
councillor, or shall have been elected to a state or federal party
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committee; or
shall be a current employee, agent or family member of any
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of the above; or,
in the two years preceding such nomination or
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appointment, shall
have been a legislative agent. The
Commissioners
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shall agree: (1)
not to stand for election to the General Court, Congress, or
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the Governor ’s
Council until districts are redrawn following the next
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census; (2) to
apply the provisions of this article in an honest, independent,
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and impartial
fashion; and (3) to act at all times so as to uphold public
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confidence in the
integrity of the redistricting process.
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SECTION 7. The Commission shall be convened no later
than
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February 15 of the
year following the commencement of the decennial
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census. The Commission shall disband only upon
final adoption and
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exhaustion of
judicial review of challenges to representative, councillor,
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and senatorial
districts.
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SECTION 8. The Commission shall hire staff and may
retain experts
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to assist it in
the performance of its duties. The Commission
shall
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establish rules
governing its operation and procedures. Commissioners
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may receive
compensation for actual time spent on Commission duties and
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shall be
reimbursed for reasonable and necessary expenses. The budget of
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the Commonwealth
shall provide adequate funding for the operation of the
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Commission.
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SECTION 9. A member of the Commission or an
appointing authority
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may petition the
Supreme Judicial Court to remove a commissioner on the
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grounds of neglect,
misconduct, or inability to perform the duties of a
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commissioner. A vacancy so created shall be filled by the
office which
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appointed the
removed commissioner or by the nomination and selection
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process set forth
in Section 6, as applicable.
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SECTION 10. All meetings of the Commission shall be
open to the
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public, consistent
with the laws of the Commonwealth concerning open
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meetings as of the
date of the adoption of this Article. All documents
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produced by or for
the Commission shall be public. The
Commission
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shall hold public
hearings in at least five geographically disbursed
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counties. The public shall be afforded the
opportunity to submit proposed
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maps for
consideration by the Commission and the Commission shall
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make map-making
software available for public use. The
Commission
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shall take all
steps necessary to ensure that the public can exercise its right
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to review and
comment on proposed district maps before they are
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approved and shall
publish all preliminary and final plans in publicly
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accessible forums
that are free of charge and that ensure wide public
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distribution. Proposed districts shall be presented in
both graphic and
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narrative form.
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SECTION 11. Within one hundred and
twenty days of the completion
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of the decennial
census, the Commission shall prepare and publish for
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public comment a
preliminary plan for representative, councillor, and
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senatorial
districts. The public shall have a
three-week period to comment
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on the preliminary
district plan. The Commission may
revise the
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preliminary
district plan in response to public comment and shall submit
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the revised plan
to the General Court, which shall vote on the revised plan.
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If the plan is
rejected, then the Commission shall prepare, publish, revise,
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and submit a
second-round preliminary district plan in the same manner as
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the first. Following the period for public comment,
the Commission shall
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submit the revised
plan to the General Court for a vote. If the General
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Court votes to
reject the second-round plan, then the Commission shall
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prepare, publish,
revise, and submit a third-round preliminary district plan,
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in the same manner
as the first. If the General Court
rejects the third-
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round plan, then
the Commission shall prepare, publish, and revise a
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fourth-round plan
in the same manner. The plan, so
revised, shall become
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law without
submission to or approval by the General Court.
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With respect to each plan the
Commission submits to the General Court
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for a vote, the
vote must be taken within two weeks of submission. No
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amendments to the
plan as submitted may be made. If the
plan is
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approved by a
majority of the members of the House and Senate present
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and voting or if
no vote is taken within the two-week period, then the plan
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as submitted shall
become law.
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SECTION 12. Original jurisdiction is hereby vested in
the Supreme
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Judicial Court
upon the petition of any voter of the Commonwealth for
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judicial relief
relative to the establishment of the representative,
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councillor, and senatorial districts. The General Court may by law limit
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the time within which judicial proceedings may be instituted to challenge
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any redistricting map.
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