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Delegate Schneider.
DELEGATE SCHNEIDER: I see. I
thought it would be in transitional legisla-
tion but being provisions would be different.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Adkins.
DELEGATE ADKINS: I would like to
ask two questions in one really. First of
all, is the change from twentieth to tenth
in any way mandated by the Supreme
Court? Secondly, if the Committee original-
ly decided on twentieth, why do they now
go back to tenth when in fact it is not
mandated?
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: In actuality
if you read the language as it now exists,
it calls for redistricting in 1970 and every
twentieth year thereafter which would be
1970 and 1990 and 1982 and every twenti-
eth year thereafter so that would be 1982
and 2002.
So over a twenty-year period you have
an average of two redistrictings in the
twenty-year period. It does not work out
to once every ten years but to an average
of once every ten years. We have merely
tried to fix a year within the every ten-
year cycle at which time redistricting
should take place. In some years it will be
the very year that the election is taking
place. In the other ten-year span it would
be two years prior to the time the election
was taking place.
The answer to your first question is the
Supreme Court has not mandated any spe-
cific period of time but we are using ten
here following the congressional practice
and also with the advantage of having the
federal decennial census figures in every
case.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Boyer.
DELEGATE BOYER: Mr. President, I
would like to speak briefly on this. I would
like to talk about the merits of the amend-
ment but unfortunately, I cannot, because I
do not think it has any merit.
I am in an awkward position here of hav-
ing reluctantly the privilege of supporting
this and will vote for it. The deletion of
this will take it out of the constitution but
I can assure you that the problems will
come up again in the transitory provisions.
I will reluctantly vote for this at this time
knowing full well that we will be fighting
a floor battle on transitory provisions.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Weide-
meyer.
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DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: Mr.
President, I would like to ask Delegate Gal-
lagher a question. As I read the way this
thing would read with the amendment that
boundaries of districts shall be drawn ac-
cording to these standards prior to the gen-
eral election in 1982 and every tenth year
thereafter.
If we are waiting until 1982 when we
know the Supreme Court is going to act
upon the legislative reapportionment —
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Weide-
meyer, I think you either were not present
or missed the statement Delegate Galla-
gher made before. There is a provision in
the transitional schedule which covers the
redistricting after 1970. Delegate Weide-
meyer.
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: The ques-
tion that I wanted to ask is why we have
to encumber the constitution with stuff like
this when constitutional provisions provid-
ing for reapportionment in 1974 would ade-
quately cover the situation?
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: The ques-
tion of encumbering the constitution with
this stuff is exactly the evil that the amend-
ment addresses itself to. Since in the lan-
guage which you have before you and
which I would seek to amend here we talk
about 1970 and every twentieth year there-
after, and 1982 and every twentieth year
thereafter, what we have really done is
condense it into 1982 and every tenth year
thereafter, and eliminate 1970 and every
year thereafter. The 1970 aspect of this
matter will be debated when transitory
provisions are before us. I think we helped
to curtail the length of the constitution in
that respect and set up a more uniform
practice.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Weide-
nieyer.
DELEGATE WEIDEMEYER: The ques-
tion I raise is why you do not amend 1982
to 1972 and have the legislature's reappor-
tionment effective in the 1974 election in
accordance with the transitory provision
rather than come up and confuse it in the
constitution and have things apparently
inconsistent with the transitory provisions.
THE PRESIDENT: Delegate Gallagher.
DELEGATE GALLAGHER: The transi-
tory provision will have a requirement that
redistricting shall take place in 1970. At
that particular time Delegate Boyer and
the other sponsors, perhaps yourself, will
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