Could Alaska Have A Mid Decade Redistricting?

President Trump called for mid-decade redistricting in Texas and other states as a way to gerrymander those states to make it harder for Democrats to win US House seats and a majority in the US House.  Could that happen in Alaska too?

First of all, Alaska has only one US House sea; the whole state is just one US House district.  So on the federal level there is no point to redistrict Alaska.  It won't result in any more seats for the GOP because there's only one seat.  

But, what if a governor wanted to change the balance of the Alaska House and Senate by a mid decade redistricting process? 

I'm guessing the answer is no.  

From the Alaska Constitution:

"§ 3. Reapportionment of House and Senate – The Redistricting Board shall reapportion the house of representatives and the senate immediately following the official reporting of each decennial census of the United States. Reapportionment shall be based upon the population within each house and senate district as reported by the official decennial census of the United States."

While I'm sure political game players would argue, "It says "shall" redistrict at this time, but it doesn't say they can't do it another time as well." I suspect that by the time it got to the Supreme Court, that reasoning would be rejected.  

And we get more instructions from the state constitution:

"§ 8. Redistricting Board – 

(b) Members of the Redistricting Board shall be appointed in the year in which an official decennial census of the United States is taken and by September 1 of that year. The governor shall appoint two members of the board. The presiding officer of the senate, the presiding officer of the house of representatives, and the chief justice of the supreme court shall each appoint one member of the board. . .

Board members serve until a final plan for redistricting and proclamation of redistricting has been adopted and all challenges to it brought under section 11 of this article have been resolved after final remand or affirmation."

Section 8 makes it clearer.  Members shall be appointed in the year in which the official decennieal census . . . is taken.  Again we might get the argument that it "may" be done at another time.  Though there is no other time we get a decennial census.  

Every district has to be the same size - generally the deviation needs to be less than 2% between districts.  By mid-decade, people will have moved and it will be difficult to figure out the right size for each district.  There are mid-decade censuses taken, but I'm not sure of their accuracy.  

But the clincher is in the way the Board members are chosen.  The governor has two picks, the President of the Senate, House Speaker, and chief Justice of the Supreme Court each choose one member.  If any of tho people holding those rolls refuses to pick a mid-decade Board member, the process would be over.  

And the Governor can't bring back the old Board, because, as the second paragraph says, Board members serve until the proclamation of redistricting has been adopted and all challenges have been resolved.  

So even if the Supreme Court allowed one that 'shall' only referred to a redistricting every ten years, it doesn't preclude that the Governor 'may' have one mid-decade, it would only take one of the four people assigned the job of selecting the members to refuse.

That doesn't mean that one day a Governor won't try to do this.  I just think it would fail.

ADDENDUM:  After completing the above, I called a retired attorney friend to ask exactly what 'shall' meant legally.  Did it preclude a redistricting other than when the census data comes every ten years?  

His response was:  This is a perfect question for AI.  I said I don't use AI.  Why?  Because I read Enshitification.  He said,  "ok, I'll use AI".  He did.  Basically it agreed with my conclusion, with a little stronger argument.  

"Why Alaska's language is particularly strong

Three provisions work together.

First, §§ 1–3 repeatedly tie the redistricting event to the federal decennial census. Section 3 is especially direct: the Board “shall reapportion” the House and Senate “immediately following” the official reporting of each decennial census. The official Alaska Constitution confirms this wording. (Nancy Dahlstrom)

Second, § 8(b) creates the Board in the census year and provides that members serve through adoption of the final plan and resolution of the resulting challenges. That structure does not create a continuously sitting body with an open-ended power to redraw districts whenever circumstances change.

Third—and probably most important—§ 10 says that the resulting final plan:

“shall be effective for the election of members of the legislature until after the official reporting of the next decennial census”

That is considerably stronger than merely saying the Board must redistrict after every census. It specifies how long the resulting districts remain effective. (Nancy Dahlstrom)"

I was surprised to learn our Lt. Governor Nancy Dahlstrom had written about this.  So I hit the links - ha!  They take you to the Lt Governor's page that has the Alaska Constitution on it.  

ADDENDUM 2:  The Enshitification link is far more interesting and significant than what I've written.  I urge you to take some time to listen to the interview of Corey Doctorow at the link.  I had intended to do a post of Enshitification, but just listen to the interview.  And there are no ads.