Friday, November 05, 2021

The Gloves Are Off As Marcum Seems To Be Working Hard To Get Her Libertarian Philosophy A Boost In Juneau (Corrected)

[Note:  Board will meet in their office at University Mall.  9am. You can Zoom in (and it's a better view than the teleconferencing at the LIO, at Zoom link as the work sessions: https://zoom.us/j/9074062894?pwd=VWxjem42YUloTnBFcTlpVWZVS0wwZz09

Zoom Meeting ID: 907 406 2894  Passcode: MoreMaps]

 I stayed home today and watched the meeting via Zoom.  In some ways you get a better view than you would in the audience at the Legislative Information Office.  But without the detailed maps online so you can zoom in and see exactly what's going on.  How many incumbents are paired?  How many incumbentless districts are there?  But you can see what's been done to the Muldoon are of East Anchorage.  The community - one made up of lots of diverse folks including a many of Anchorage's Hmong population - has been sliced and diced and connected on one end, it appears, to Eagle River, despite lots of testimony from both Muldoon and from Eagle River that ER should be its own district.  And the other end looks like it is paired with the hillside - connected over parkland, but not directly by roads.  

This is the Anchorage map Marcum presented today.  East Anchorage is twisted this way and that.  Part of it seems to go to ER.  Part to JBER.  Part to Hillside.  

This is a fairly high res image, so click to enlarge and focus

There's a great similarity to Marcum's very first map - Board Map v1 - which was roundly criticized by everyone because it paired lots of Democrats and linked East Anchorage to Eagle River.  Nicole Borromeo tried to improve it overnight and came up with v2.  But it's hard to start from a bad mad and make it a good map overnight.  Both v1 and v2 were so criticized that the Board tossed them in favor of v3 and v4.  Below is the Anchorage area map v1, listed on the Board's website under Obsolete Plans    
From  bottom left of this page

Well, the obsolete plan - see below - has been resurrected.

Board v1 map go to link for better view

For the most part, I try to report this factually.  I only slide into interpretation when I think the facts pointing toward my interpretation are pretty straightforward.  

Early on I was concerned about Bethany Marcum.  She's the executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum.  From Source Watch:
"APF is an affiliate member of the State Policy Network. SPN is a web of right-wing “think tanks” and tax-exempt organizations in 50 states, Washington, D.C., Canada, and the United Kingdom. As of January 2021, SPN's membership totals 163. Today's SPN is the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party. SPN Executive Director Tracie Sharp told the Wall Street Journal in 2017 that the revenue of the combined groups was some $80 million, but a 2019 analysis of SPN's main members IRS filings by the Center for Media and Democracy shows that the combined revenue is over $120 million.[8] Although SPN's member organizations claim to be nonpartisan and independent, the Center for Media and Democracy's in-depth investigation, "EXPOSED: The State Policy Network -- The Powerful Right-Wing Network Helping to Hijack State Politics and Government," reveals that SPN and its member think tanks are major drivers of the right-wing, American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)-backed corporate agenda in state houses nationwide, with deep ties to the Koch brothers and the national right-wing network of funders.[9]"

From the Alaska Policy Forum's website we can see their Vision, Mission, and Goals.

VISION

Our vision is an Alaska that continuously grows prosperity by maximizing individual opportunities and freedom.

MISSION

Our mission is to empower and educate Alaskans and policymakers by promoting policies that grow freedom for all.

SEVEN PRINCIPLES OF SOUND PUBLIC POLICY

  1. Free people are not equal, and equal people are not free.
  2. What belongs to you, you tend to take care of; what belongs to no one or everyone tends to fall into disrepair.
  3. Sound policy requires that we consider long-run effects and all people, not simply short-run effects and a few people.
  4. If you encourage something, you will get more of it; if you discourage something, you will get less of it.
  5. Nobody spends someone else’s money as carefully as he spends his own.
  6. Government has nothing to give anybody except what it first takes from somebody, and a government that’s big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.
  7. Liberty makes all the difference in the world.

While taken totally out of context, these might seem like things many would embrace, this is a strongly anti-government, pro-Libertarian agenda.  What does #1 mean?  The Constitution doesn't say all people should be equal, but merely they should have the same opportunities and that they are equal before the law.  And with all the anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers calming their liberty is being violated, well, this is one part of the Conservative far right agenda to push individuals and to ignore collective responsibilities.  

But my basic point is that Marcum's job, what she gets paid to do when she's not on the Board, is to push Libertarian, anti-government values and legislation.  And it would be naive to believe that Dunleavy didn't know that when he appointed her to the Board.  And it is totally natural for her to be doing that on the Board.  And it appears that map v1 and the latest map she presented Thursday were intended to help shape a legislature that will be amenable to the Alaska Policy Forum's model legislation.  

I don't fault her for that.  But it is up to the rest of the Board to fight for maps that don't have a strong pro-far right bias.  So far, Board member Nicole Borromeo has been the one to strongly challenge Marcum.  

Marcum left and Borromeo right
Isn't it odd that after spending time making the first maps and getting maps from four other groups, that the Board is working from scratch to create an Anchorage map.  There are lots of examples of how to fairly redistrict the state.  There are reasonable Anchorage maps with low deviations and decent compactness, socio-economic integration.  There were weeks of traveling around the state to get feedback from the public, and Marcum has offered us a map at the last minute that looks a lot like the rejected v1 over all those other maps.  I'm guessing those that got her onto the Board are leaning on her to produce  better maps for them.  It's just a guess, but she was fighting hard today for  "an obsolete plan."


It's late.  There are other examples of things Marcum has pushed on the Board that show her moving in this direction.  But tomorrow the meeting starts again.  They'll be back at the Board's office at the University Mall, not the Legislative Information Office as originally scheduled.  At 9am.  


And here's someone else I don't know at all who seems to see the same things that I see.


It's my understanding that all redistricting plans have been challenged in the courts.  So we can expect the same this time.  This time the process has been more open than in the past and the general public has had phone and online access to all the Board meetings.  And there's been a lot more coverage by the mainstream media and social media than in the past.  And the third party groups were much more prepared.  

Season One - "The Board Approves A Plan" ends next week - by Nov 10.  Then comes Season Two - In the Courts.  There will be a bit of a break, but the courts don't dilly dally with redistricting challenges because if the maps aren't finalized by around June 1, the division of elections won't have time for candidates to know what districts they're in.  {Correction:  So the old map, in that case, would be in place until 2024.  [The challenged map will be the map used in 2022, not the old map.] Thanks to TB for catching that error.)

Thursday, November 04, 2021

Redistricting Board Showing Their Agendas As Decision About Final Map Nears (Completed Now)

 You could watch the Alaska Redistricting Board yesterday via Zoom and you can again today starting at 9am.  It's a much better view than I expected.  And the public has had significantly more distance access to the Board meetings this year than ten years ago.

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/9074062894?pwd=VWxjem42YUloTnBFcTlpVWZVS0wwZz09

Meeting ID: 907 406 2894;  Passcode: MoreMaps


For the most part yesterday, I only saw about 37 participants on the Zoom.  Alaskans should just leave it on the background and then listen in when they start debating. 


I'll post this much now so people can link and watch.  Then I'll repost this when I've added a bit more about yesterday.  

..............................................................


OK, this shouldn't be too long.  For the most part, I had the zoom on while I did other things.  Part of the meeting was quiet as people worked on their maps.  


Then there were parts that were loud and clear and somewhat contentious.  I'm going to address two parts: 


1.  Melanie Bahnke's ardent fight to not have Interior villages in the same district as Coastal Naive communities.  At one point she said she was taking off her Board hat and putting on her Native Leader hat as she cited "Socio-economic integration" over and over again.  There's no SEI between Coastal Native peoples and Interior people. was her mantra.  It got a little tense.  Chair John Binkley was a voice of calm trying to find a way to make everyone happy.  I had to run some errands so I didn't hear how it worked out.  When I got back they were working on Fairbanks.  


2.  This second point I only know second hand.  Apparently Board member Bethany Marcum drafted a new Anchorage map that pairs East Anchorage with Eagle River.  There's been plenty of testimony from both East Anchorage AND Eagle River not to do this.  But the Board's attorney has been pushing hard on the Supreme Court past rulings that said all of Anchorage is Socio-Economically Integrated.  Others have argued strongly Eagle River is seriously working on seceeding from Anchorage and should be in its own districts.  And there are maps that do this.  Note, Bill Wielechowski is the Democratic Senator from East Anchorage.  In the last round of redistricting, an East Anchorage house district was paired with an Eagle River house district to form Sen. Bettye Davis' new Senate district.  And at the next election, the more conservative Eagle River voters voted the only African-American Senator out of office.  I have a post from 2013 titled The Alaska Senator The Oil Companies Most Hate.  They'd love to get rid of him.




Let's remember that as open and relatively transparent the Board has been, and as hospitable the chair John Binkley has been, redistricting is essentially a political process to influence who gets into the legislature for the next ten years.  With Republicans doing all they can to make voting more difficult for POC voters all across the country, we shouldn't assume sweetness and light at the Alaska Redistricting Board.  


In the last round of redistricting there were four Republicans and one Alaska Native of uncertain party who was appointed by the Supreme Court Chief Justice.  This time Governor Dunleavy, who has been pushing far right issues from so called "federal overreach" to "severe budget cutting" to "anti-masking" and on and on, appointed Bethany Marcum and Budd Simpson.  Marcum is the executive director of the Alaska Policy Forum.  It's part of a nationwide franchise funded in part by the Koch network.  It's mission and goals push a hard libertarian, personal freedom line.  She's the one, if I recall right, who proposed the Board's rule of not protecting incumbents.  The Board has not made a rule to not target incumbents.  She also made the first Anchorage maps that paired lots of Democrats into the same districts.  She is just doing what she's paid to do by the Alaska Policy Forum and what Dunleavy chose her to do - get more Republican elected and weaken Democrats.  If the rest of the Board can't fix her partisan mapping, then it's up to the public to help those organizations that will sue the Board and urge the courts to correct the maps.  Here's a post that tells you about the 3rd Party groups that have submitted maps and you can contact the one(s) that most match your values and ask how you can support them with your time or your money.


9:56am  They were just about to vote to include Valdez with the Matsu Borough.  Marcum objected saying she wants to wait until they deal with Fairbanks because Valdez could go in that direction too.  She also raised the issue that Matsu is the fastest growing area.  Well, John Binkley, the other day pointed out that the Board cannot consider such issues.  They can only consider the official census numbers.  

And my Zoom connection just crashed.  OK, back on.  





The Fairbanks map is now up and John Binkley is recounting how the original maps overpopulated Fairbanks (all districts had more than the 18,335 per district target) and how the Fairbanks feedback, including the local government were opposed and that the Board should listen.  


Tuesday, November 02, 2021

AK Redistricting Board Meeting - Tying Up Loose Ends Before Hunkering Down To Make Final Maps

[Sorry, this is kind of rough, but it's been a long day and there will be more to do tomorrow, so until official transcripts go up, here's what happened today.]

 Today's Redistricting meeting was intended to get the Board ready to spend the next couple of days back at their computers making the final maps.  

There was public testimony first.  Really, some speakers who got a lot of time.  Rep. Matt Claman submitted written testimony and discussed it with the Board.  Randy Ruedrich, former chair of the Republican party, the main brain behind the AFFER maps, and one of the best versed Alaskans on redistricting spoke about the AFFER maps and why deviation has to be the most important criterion. Also Robin O'Donahue and David Dunsmore of AFFR went through the changes AFFR has made to their maps in response to all the public testimony.  



Then the Board went into executive session.  I listened to the first part by phone from home and went to LIO to hear the Board's attorney Matt Singer summarize what the Board had heard from the VRA consultants:  The four Native districts - 37, 38, 39, and 40 - are still Native districts so no problem.  And looking at some of the diverse Anchorage districts, they found no evidence of blocks of votes based on race in those districts.  While they are diverse, they are made up of different ethnic groups and don't vote as a block.  So, again no problem.  




Then Peter Torkelson, the Executive Director of the Board explained how the staff verified that the






Census data they downloaded on August 12 and used to make all the maps, was indeed the real Census data and hadn't been hacked.  He did this by comparing it to the physical hard drive and disc that arrive recently and matching the fingerprints.  I get the general idea, but not the details.  

Then he outlined what the Board has to do in the next week before the November 10 deadline.  I went through that in the previous post. They have to truncate the Senate seats - after the finish the new maps and pair the house districts into Senate seats.  

Truncating means identifying which districts have a substantial increase of new voters, that is voters who never voted for the incumbent Senators.  This is necessary because people shouldn't have representatives who weren't elected by the voters in the district.  There's no exact definition of substantial, but 30% apparently is at the high end.  That much and the district has to be truncated.  A normal senate seat is four years.  And that means instead of serving out the rest of their term (if they aren't up for election in 2022) those seats that are truncated will have to run again in 2022.  

But that's only step one.  The Constitution says the Senate seats need to be staggered so only 10 senators are up for election in any one year.  (That way there are always some senators who have some experience in office.)  So, there's a good chance that more than ten senators will have to run in 2022.  In that case, the Board will have to decide which ones will run again in 2024 and 2026.  

Eric Sanders, a tech on loan from the Department of Labor, will spend the weekend - or as soon as there's a final map - writing legal descriptions of each district.  This will verbally describe the boundaries of the districts based on geographical and man-made features.  He did this for the previous redistricting board to.  

So, then just before adjourning there was more public testimony.  David Dunsmore responded to the several pages of documents the Board handed out of the analysis by the Voting Rights Act consultants.  He agreed with their assessment of the rural districts 37, 38, 39, and 40, but did not agree with their assessment about their being no racial voting patterns in the diverse Anchorage districts.  He also mentioned that he didn't see any mention of the pending change to ranked choice voting and how that might affect racial voting patterns.  (I know that sounds a bit sinister - racial voting patterns - but the idea here is that if there are blocks of diverse communities who vote overwhelming for one party or the other and that voting pattern is different from the white voting pattern, then the Voting Rights Act plays some role in making sure their voting power is not watered down.)

Then, they recessed so they could move the meeting from the Legislative Information Office to the Board's office in the old University Center.   It's in the hallway between where UAA and the University Theaters used to be (the DMV is there now) and where Roundtable used to be.  They're close to the Round Table end, but you have to enter where the DMV is.  



Meeting at Redistricting Board Office at University Mall


I stopped by there on the way home.  Only Robin and David were in the audience.  You can zoom in.  It didn't look like I'd gain much watching them this afternoon and I had other things to do so I took some pictures and left.  

Below are my very rough notes of the meeting with more detail, but for most people I'd recommend just stopping here.  Not sure there is much more that the average citizen needs to know.  Tape and transcripts should be available before too long.  



MY ROUGH NOTES

9am  waiting for connection

Four members there - Budd Simpson not

Adopting agenda.

Agenda

Call to Order and Establish Quorum

Adoption of Agenda  

Adoption of Minutes

Public Testimony – will conclude at 10:30am

Dial into one of the phone numbers above and indicate to the operator that you wish to testify

Had to connect by phone.  Sounds like testimony

Randy Ruedrich  Talking about deviation.  

Binkley - SC urged lower deviations in local areas, Anchorage .93 %  Sounds like Randy Ruedrich - results in FB overpopulation.  We got an ideal map.  Reason large deviations then we had VRA and to maximize to get Native majority districts 

Binkley:  clarify.  When you say maps have 12X between the highest and lowest.  

Ruedrich:  Talking about over population in FB in 2010   -  .39%  ideal statewide compared to FB

This year, v3, deviations above 4% on average is 10X .4%.  

Binkley:  I understand, previous SC decisions have applied deviation within Municipality, but not Statewide.  

Ruedrich:  After litigation in 2002, met with Board to get deviation as low as possible.  16% excess population divided among Matsu districts.  SC commended board for lowering deviations.  

Borromeo:  Asking us to minimize FB deviations?

Ruedrich:  Exactly.  Should be minimized everywhere.  AFFER adds the Glen Allen precinct to get us a full 6 units of population.  We’d have exactly 6 districts.

 Do you think that’s more important than SEI?

Ruedrich: SEI is overrated - Most are within urban areas so it’s irrelevant.  Only a few districts where it’s a problem - District 40 is what’s left.  It’s mostly Doyon Villages.  Much better of 2013 map which put Doyon villages in ?? districts.

Bahnke:

Ruedrich:  Map we presented in FB has a Northside district.  We go east to west, Old Nenana Road goes top of all existing districts.  Northside should be competitive district and leaves less than 4K people (20%), that can be put in District 5 the rural Athabaskan district.

Binkley:  You’re saying SEI 

Ruedrich:  First equal representation, 5 districts 2 ok, other 3.  Traditionally one NP district, other ?? District, 3rd is far north which combine with NS.  Chena Ridge inappropriate. 


Rep. Claman -  Turned in written testimony.  Here 2 things.  Product of 1998 amendment to constitution.  Changed deviation.  Need to bring deviation low as possible.  Close to 1% deviation which means 1/2 percent.   33 or 34 districts statewide in urban.  Less than 1% problematic.  

Page 4 of written testimony - NSB 5.3%   Main point - deviation is starting point, then SEI next.  Cordoba shouldn’t be in SE in previous SC, but changes, such as ferry system, make it worth reconsidering.  Basis for Board to find that integrating Cordova to SE.  Now connected to kodiak, which seems further.

Borromeo:  Thank you.  More difficult areas, I have read your testimony.  Any thoughts on Valdez.

Claman:  Time spent there. Part oil and part Fishing.  Lean to more oil than fishing.  Better paired with Matsu than the fishing communities, but you could make argument for both.

Bethany:  Deviation between 5 districts in FB or from target population of entire map.  

Claman:  On page 4 of my testimony.  If take 18,335/ Anchorage population - just shy of 16.  Trying to get 16 districts w/in 5% of that number.  16th district as close as possible.  Same with FBs. FB gets 4+ districts.  Look at most populous areas and should be able to get those areas within that target since two maps did.  

Binkley - is deviation considered within the Municipalities, not 

Matt Singer (atty) - talking about Hickel SC ruling - 10% total statewide deviation, but within Muni should be within 1% of ideal population, but SC never said that.  Are urban voters more entitled to one person one vote than rural votes?  If reduce to almost zero in urban areas, then necessarily creating exaggerated deviations in rural areas. We’ll be able to talk more in executive session.  

9:34

Borromeo:  Asking for minimum deviation or one person one vote for FB?

Claman:  Matsu is 5.84, my perspective.  FB .22 over the 5 is much closer to five than six.  So 5 districts in FB and sixth district that gets part of FB.  Based on SC precedent, rural areas are harder to get right.  

Borromeo:  Cancel each other out?

Claman:  Hard to make case that FB should have six districts when overage is .22

Borromeo:  Overpopulating FB short changes them

Claman:  Districts should be closer to the targets.  

Binkley: Thanks  OK Randy  Don’t see anyone on line

Borromeo:  ????

9:38

Ruedrich:  Respond to counsel - 2002 case, different set of constraints than today. VRA act to create minority-majority districts with assumptions that those districts would be under populated.  That issue is gone, so interpretation in view of that change is that we minimize deviations.  Not within one B or another.  Mission as we did map - minimized deviations altogether.  Western -.35  for Aleutian chain = -1.08.  Admit with very few populations.  Won’t get rural to 1/8 percent only by accident.  Just above 1% is goal achieved.  Strives to maximize representation for Western Alaska.  D37, 38, 39, basically south to north.  D37 already needed 1000 people.  Had 8 villages.  Our solution was to take 5 Lower Kuskokwim school districts and putting them into 37??  And they could all vote for same Senator.  Wind up with deviation of -1.08 and -.35 for Calista.  Accomplishes significant things for Calista people.  Have half of a Senator.  Larger share of Senate S.  

Binkley:  You said Doyon broken 5 times and in this map broken once?

Ruedrich:  It had 4 different representatives.  No only in 39 and D5?  

Like to move to Matsu Borough.  Six whole house seats, need 6 hundreds of a house seat.  Denali B has 9 hundredths of a house seat.  Would work.  I’d prefer full representation situation, requires take Glen Allen district SEI, those folks, go back to core area of Matsu to go shopping when things not available in Glen Allen.  Borough requested - not updated, incorporated in AFFR map.  

Wasilla - a highway town.  Mayor’s comments on record.  City centered N-s on Mainstreet - Wasilla Fishhook.  N part of district 13 on this map.  Western boundary Church road.  Wraps around Church and comes back down south.  This is what the mayor requested.  Can’t say there would be a different outcome than other districts from what we’ve drawn.  

Binkley:  Thanks Randy, you’ve put a lot of thought into this.  I see one on the line.  Let’s go to FB person

Debbie ??? FB - Thank you very much for all your work. I went through all the plans.  Noticed SE - every map presented have the 4 districts 800 to 1000 under the 18,335.  These are shrinking.  Other districts must be over populated if they are underpopulated.  So I recommend that SE boundaries reach up to Cordova and possibly Kodiak to get them fully populated.  

Wasilla/Palmer are growing the most, so those districts should have the largest underpopulation and in ten years they wouldn’t be underpopulated.  Tried to get maps from 40 years ago.

I want best representation for voters.  AFFER or v4.  

Binkley:  Questions.  Looking to how things might grow in the future, not something we allowed to do.  We have to go by Census numbers.  Can’t consider the census inaccurate.  In terms of over and underpopulation.  We’ve gotten as close as practicable.  We have to look at Compactnes, Contiguity, and SEI.  Then look at least deviation.  In SE, geography restricts us.  Can only go to north and only community is Cordova, but it would overpopulate, but would split Cordova in half.  That would be hard to divide Cordova like that.  

Debbie:  Cordova, on the map, appears a lot closer to SE much closer than to Interior.

Binkley:  Different maps connect Cordova with different areas.  It’s about 2500.

Debbie:  Oh, that’s small.

Binkley:  We appreciate you taking the time.  Here in Anchorage

Robin O’Donoghue and David Dunsmore:  AFFR, we submitted a 25 page report - all the comments since Sept. 1 and tried to coordinate.  AFFR had most statewide report - Western Alaska and Aleutians.  Responses on Constitutional issues - looked at constitutional impacts of the 6 plans taken on the tour.  Believe our map is the only constitutional option.  We made two modifications and David will comment in moment.  Comment on VRA and some additional public testimony.  Last, request for board, process.  Early on Board withheld Senate pairings  - ask ample time to provide feedback on the Senate pairings.  Take in testimony until the final day of this process.  Thank you for all your work.  Here’s David on our changes.

David:  Amendments after public testimony.  Regions of the state.

 Thank you all and staff for hospitality you’ve shown across state tour and hard work.

One overarching constitutional issues is Borough boundaries.  Hickel case why our approach minimizing breaking B boundaries.  Hickel - recognize may be necessary to break a B to deal with excess population,  Then all should go to one district.  2011 ??  Cases the same with FB.  AFFR is only map that achieved that.  One area where did have to divide B twice was Kenai Pen B.  Not possible to do that and all other maps did that.

Technical corrections.  Told board already.  Operator error.  1) Yakutat - portion of Canadian borough put in Coast district by mistake.  2) Anchorage - Elmore Road by mistake   3) two substantive amendment move ?? fromDistrict 38 and 39.  SE remove PoWales Island from D4 to D2 and switch with portions of Admiralty Island.

Kenai - unanimous opposition to Status quo - had to drive thru Soldotna to get to rest of district (Seward) want to be connected with Homer.  Homer strong desire for entire Kachemak bay in a single district.   

He goes on to talk more about Kenai, SE, FB details

Interior also strong support for our concept - Eilson, Salcha, 

Bahnke - Nome - captured Nome sentiment

Dunsmore - Robin can speak more to that.  Robin spent hours poring over the testimony.  Aware, Nome had population loss.  No way to make a district that doesn’t include other distinct cultural groups with Nome.  

Bahnke:  Makes no sense -Nome testimony - to connect Athabaskans with Sea people - your map was not popular in Nome.  

David:  It’s possible there’s an error in the numbers.  Your assessment of Nome is accurate.  My recollection was no one’s map was popular.  Interior villages didn’t think it made sense to have Hooper Bay.  Nome is one area where people would prefer a different map than any other map.

Bahnke - In Nome people like v4.  

Borromeo - you are capturing sentiments, but miss Nome, so are others accurate?

Dunsmore:  Based on what’s online and in the public record.  We’ve shown methodology.

10:31   [I’m being distracted so not capturing this all.]

Binkley - one more public testimony

Brian - In prior opportunities expressed concern about west Anchorage - AFFER and v4 - approaching the ?? Process.  Plug for AFFER for West Anchorage.  V4  That’s all I have.  

Binkley:  Conclude public testimony.  Go into Executive Session -OK take a break then go to ES.  

10:30am – Executive Session with Legal Counsel Voting Rights Act Compliance in 2020 Proposed Plans

Voting Rights Act Compliance in 2020 Proposed Plans

Presentation by Matt Singer, Schwabe, Legal Counsel to the Board


1:14 - Board back from ES  - Matt Singer, Board attorney presentation, handouts.

Voting Rights Act - has been part of Alaska Redistricting.  CAn’t diminish Alaska Native Control districts.  Have traditionally elected Native politicians.  Dr. Katz is statistician, Bruce Adelson VRA expert.  Analysis.  Katz concluded that racially polarized voting does occur

Districts 37,38,39 40 are protected.  Analyzed v3 to see if needed modifications.  Concluded they do not because D37-40 have enough Native population to elect candidate of their choice.  Did note that some districts have very high native populations.  Cracking would be diluting by spreading over districts.  Packing - when minorities packed into some districts and not giving them more power.  Could we add a fifth Native district?  Decided that we could not - just wouldn’t make sense.  


Detailed report to explain our IRA analysis.  Barring some drastic changes - all the plans had those four districts - they drew themselves the way the population is divided.  


Other component - Neighborhoods in Anchorage with diverse neighborhoods we looked at distribution of Anchorage population as example and House D19 there are 33.4% id as white  two or more  12.5 Hispanic  ……. Can’t keep up….   Is there a difference between white and minority voters?  We could not find statistical evidence to support there is political cohesion among the groups nor racial block voting.  Not a VRA obligation to draw Anchorage districts a certain way.  Board has obligation to NOT discriminate against minorities.  Compact, contiguous districts board avoids discrimination.  

Longwinded way is our advice to Board is VRA does not require alteration to the plans the board is now considering.  We’ll run the final plan through the experts.  

Q? No





Review of Sept 16 Census Physical Delivery Data 

1:26   Peter Torkelson:  Next item.  Our receipt of physical data package.  We sent out an email detailing this.  Point here is to be sure that the data we are using is the actual Census data.  August 12, downloaded from internet and things could be compromised.  We cross-checked different ways to validate.  Constitution says board must use Census data.  Only authoritative data we can use.  Census followed up with a hardware - DVD and thumb drive.  Opened the files and found data file.  At first glance seems to be same file we downloaded.  These files look to be the same.  But we must be able to document that downloaded data is exactly the same as the Census data.  

Compared new data to the downloaded data.  Digital fingerprinting - comparing two electronic files to make sure they are exactly the same 

[Explaining in more detail how he checked to confirm the files are identical.]

Avalanche effect - one small thing can cascade an avalanche of difference.

Digital fingerprints of Aug 12 download identical to physical file received in September.

1:35

Binkley - a lot shorter than your email.  

Peter:  I got a lot of feedback about the email…

Public Hearing Tour Summary

1:37  Review places we’ve been to meet Constitutional obligation to hold public hearings.  We took the six adopted plans

First half hour just talking with people about the maps on the wall and then offering public testimony.  Smaller communities people less likely.  [Basically talking about where they went - timing, etc.  Not much critical substance..  

List of Quick Stats - hundreds of truly generous Alaskans.  One lady testified, then left.  Went to store to buy us food before the local store closed.  We were overwhelmed by generosity of Alaskans.

1:44

Binkley - we all share the thanks for the hospitality of Alaskans around the state.


Review & Discussion: Tasks Ahead, Key Decisions 

VRA analysis not complete because we don’t have a completed map.  I work at your discretion, but also my duty to hold your feet to the fire.  

Next tasks ahead and vision for the week - board will do as they wish, but we’d recommend.  We urge you to get a final map by Friday.  We need another of days after the final map to fulfill our duties.

Mr. Sandberg from Dept of Labor has to write detailed descriptions of 40 districts.  He offered to work the weekend to get it done.  

Other tasks.  Contacted by GIS departments of Boroughs and cities about problems with maps and they want to take our shape file and run it through their systems to identify where out maps may divide a house or other problems.  

Want to do the Senate pairings and to do that, have to run core constituency reports - what % of voters were in the previous districts.  In some districts we’ll have 90% the same voters, but in other districts not so high.  May have to truncate because voters in that district have substantially changed.  20 Senate seats, ten elected every cycle.  Decide a) which seats have to run again, and b) assign which election cycle each seat will run.  

That’s why we have to do final map by Friday.  But it won’t be final official map until we adopt the full proclamation - need to have everyone do all these things.  So need to get the map done by Friday.


We have organized our offices to have work sessions.  Maps on walls.  Time for board to look more inward and draft maps that reflect the standards and the public input we’ve received. Are two days enough?  I don’t know.  


Then come back here when done and explain Friday and formally adopt.  

Binkley:  Thank you Peter.  For all of us first time through and trying to get through.  You’ve outlined a good course of action.

Borromeo:  I find the office a better atmosphere for mapping.  Plenty of seats for everyone who is here today.  I encourage people to just do their mapping.  

Marcum:  I agree we’ll be more productive mapping.  Trying to do all this in two days, I suggest we start today and tonight.  Rather start early and intensely and get done early, rather than wait.

Simpson:  I agree

TJ Presley:  There needs to be a final public testimony opportunity.  Just make sure you are incorporating that.

Torkelson:  The mapping at the office will be open to the public.  We’ve got seating and made that possible.  Suggest public testimony before we make final decisions. 

Binkley:  We’d come back with Senate pairings and recommend public testimony after we do the senate pairings - maybe Monday morning.  Try to get things done Friday and staff can clean up on Monday.

Binkley:  OK, then we can recess, suggest.

Matt Singer:  Recess to another location.

Torkelson:  We have a zoom link, however, this is a dynamic process, people doing around.  No way to capture this whole process.  Not the same as if you were there in person.  

1:59pm

Matt:  When you make decisions should do that in way that is as public as possible.  

Peter:  Work session will be recorded.  Need to move from formal process and when decision points come, get more formal.

Matt Singer:  You will have to make decisions at different points should make that clear.  

Pressley:  Want testimony now?

Binkley:  If someone has something to say?  David Dunsmore

Dunsmore:  Brief time to look at VRA handouts.  It seems to me clear evidence of racial profiling in East Anchorage.  We concur with conclusion for rural Alaska that 4 rural districts required.  I’d suggest Board to ask Adelson to supplement report - one thing missing, curious how national expert would tackle the problem - how Prop 2 is going to interplay with bra analysis.  Under prop 2 (ranked choice) uncertain how last election would have ended up.  Appropriate to Board to ask for analysis of Ranked Choice voting.  It’s happened in various countries around the world, so I assume there are methodologies for analyzing.  Also appropriate to ask in ecological analysis, not just races, to see where Native Candidate against non-Native candidate.  Also VRA considers candidate of its choice, but doesn’t have to be same race.  

Also put on record couple of races - haven’t seen Anchorage analysis.  I think some showed clear racial voting.  Bettye Davis barely won her district but when paired with ER, minority voters denied the candidate of their choice.  White voters in ER heavily voted for Anna Fairclough.  Also 2012 Garen Tarr v. Cal Williams - clear white/minority voting.  That was a primary race, so not partisan polarization.  Also given new voting system, overlapping Senate district - Tom Begich v. ???.  Thank you again for the opportunity to give testimony

Matt Singer:  Adelson believes some white cross-over voting in AK native districts.  

Dunsmore - I did see but not that tied in post Prop 2 world.  

Matt Singer:  If five districts in Anchorage with 45% or more minority population.  

Dunsmore:  I don’t have the numbers in front of me.  

Matt:  v3 and v4 had five minority districts in Anchorage where a majority - if you buy that the diverse minority groups voted the same - every group came up with about five districts.

Dunsmore:  Haven’t had chance to review the other plans for this.  

Binley:  Thank you.  If not close and recess to work session at our office

Borromeo:  3901 Old Seward Highway, near DMV (Old University Center)


They adjourned at this point.  I’m afraid I stopped tracking the time.  It was maybe 2:30 or so.  


Mapping Work Session

This continued at the Board’s office.  


Adopt Final Redistricting Map  - postponed, most likely to Friday

Adjournment

Monday, November 01, 2021

Redistricting Board Has "ADOPT FINAL REDISTRICTING MAP" Scheduled For Tues PM Nov 2 - But Probably Not Really. Here's What's Going To Happen

[UPDATE November 1, 2021:  Board sent out update Agenda for the week after this was posted and reflects what's discussed here.]

When I saw the Agenda [posted below] for Tuesday I was, like, "They're going to adopt a final map in one day?  They're never going to get all that done."   

I called Peter Torkelson, the Board's Executive Director, and we talked through the agenda.  

Most important point - This is more like an agenda for the week.  They're going to try to get through Agenda Item #9.  Then Wednesday and Thursday do the Mapping Work Sessions where the Board works on the maps.  This work will happen in the Board's office in the University Center. They are trying to work out some sort of Zoom connection, but there will be people working individually, in pairs, etc. with different conversations going on simultaneously.  People will be able to attend the meeting in person.  

Then Friday they want to get to Agenda Item #11 - Adopt Final Redistricting Map. But everything is fluid.  Things could happen faster or slower, but expect a final map by Friday at the latest.

Voting Rights Act Compliance - The board hired a Voting Rights Act (VRA) consultant to review the proposed maps to make sure they are in compliance with the VRA - basically impacts on minority voters, which in Alaska mainly means Alaska Natives.  Ten years ago, Alaska was one of 16 states that needed federal Department of Justice approval before they could finalize their maps.  The US Supreme Court in 2011 in Shelby v Holder said that Sec 5 of the Act was no longer valid and so preclearance is no longer required.  (They'd already gotten it last time before the SC decision.)  So the Board is going to be briefed in Executive Session - I'm not sure why that's necessary because last time the Voting Rights consultant report and questions were done in public - though some part may have been in executive session - and then the Board's attorney will give a summary to the public.

Next - After the districts are 'finalized' - they will "proof read" the maps.  They'll send the maps out to various Municipalities and Boroughs around the state, with whom they've already talked, for them to go through their locations carefully to find any blips - weird census blocks that raise issues such as a house cut in half by a district, odd protrusions that have an unintended negative impact, etc. - that can be corrected.  

Also over the weekend, Eric Sandberg, the tech on loan to the Board from the State, who served these same functions 10 years ago, will create the 'metes and bounds' - the verbal descriptions of each of the districts.  Here's a link to the post from May 15, 2012 where the Board votes to adopt the metes and bounds.  You can see an example of the description of District 1.  There's also a link to the audio of that meeting (about 7 minutes including an opening concert by the Board Chair). Eric Sandberg gives a very brief description of the kinds of corrections he made to the districts - basically moving census blocks that had no population, including some over water.  

And Finally - There will be more to do then next week.  Mainly Senate Pairings and truncation.  Each Senate district comprises of two house districts, so they have to decide which two house districts become a Senate district.  They have to be contiguous house districts. This could have political impacts.  The last Board paired the only African-American Senator, Bettye Davis, out of her Senate seat by pairing her house district in East Anchorage with a house district in Eagle River, adding a much more conservative set of voters.  

Truncation is a more arcane activity. If a "substantial" number of new voters are in a Senate district, then that district has to go up for election in the next election.  The idea is that the new people would be represented by someone they didn't vote for.  How much is 'substantial'?  Peter thought 30% new voters would be an absolute limit, but it could be fewer than that to trigger truncation.  Last time 19 out 20 Senate seats were truncated.  But there's more.

Term Allocation Table - Senate seats are staggered so that only 10 seats are up at any one election.  So that all gets messed up by truncation.  Thus some Senate seats will have to run for election again in 2024. (I'm assuming court cases won't delay the process enough to not go into effect in2022).  There's plenty of partisan hanky-panky potential in this process too.  

Ideally, all this will be accomplished by November 10, because November 11 is Veteran's Day and the day they have to be done by.  


page1image852140448

Date: November 2, 2021 Time: 9:00am

Place:

Anchorage Legislative Information Office, Denali Conference Room, 1st Floor 1500 West Benson Blvd, Anchorage 99503

Anchorage LIO meetings: Live Video/Audio Web Stream: www.akl.tvAnchorage LIO: Teleconference public testimony dial-in numbers:

Anchorage 563-9085, Juneau 586-9085, Other 844-586-9085

page1image852168176

Agenda

  1. Call to Order and Establish Quorum
  2. Adoption of Agenda
  3. Adoption of Minutes
  4. Public Testimony – will conclude at 10:30am
    1. Dial into one of the phone numbers above and indicate to the operator that you wish to testify
  5. 10:30am – Executive Session with Legal Counsel Voting Rights Act Compliance in 2020 Proposed Plans
  6. Voting Rights Act Compliance in 2020 Proposed Plans
    1. Presentation by Matt Singer, Schwabe, Legal Counsel to the Board
  7. Review of Sept 16 Census Physical Delivery Data 
  8. Public Hearing Tour Summary
  9. Review & Discussion: Tasks Ahead, Key Decisions 
  10. Mapping Work Session
  11. Adopt Final Redistricting Map 
  12. Adjournment

Saturday, October 30, 2021

Alaska Redistricting Board: State Wide Testimony Today Overview And Rough Notes



The Alaska Redistricting Board met in a Statewide call-in to take testimony today on the six maps that were adopted in September for consideration.  They have been gathering feedback across the state before submitting the finalized maps.  

I took running notes, which are really rough.  In 2011-12 I posted such notes because there were no other ways to get the information.  This time round the Board is doing a pretty good job of getting the testimony posted on the Board’s website within a week or so.  

Today Board member Nicole Borromeo chaired the meeting and Board member Bethany Marcum sat in as well.  Board chair John Binkley also listened in and occasionally made comments.  They had scheduled times when different parts of the state could call in and get priority.  When there were no more callers from that area, they took calls from all over.  

Some of my quick impressions:
 Fairbanks callers overwhelmingly preferred Board version 4 (v4) and the AFFR maps.  And disliked v3.  They particularly opposed putting North Pole and Fairbanks into the same district.  
Southeast callers still have a bad taste in their mouths about the original maps that cut out Rep. Story from her district and put her against another Democratic incumbent. 
There were a couple comments from the Homer area that wanted Fritz Creek to be part of Homer.  This reflected a lot of testimony at a previous meeting.  

The meeting also got me thinking about the whole issue of what things really are important to be together in state House districts.  What’s important and what is merely cosmetic or emotional?   I’ll flesh that out in a later post.  I’m still thinking it through and trying to bore down to the key elements and not have a lot of fluff.  

So, here are my notes.  Some caveats first:

 GIANT APOLOGY ABOUT PEOPLE’S NAMES!!!  I’m listening in via the phone. The Board has the list of people who have called in and want to talk, so they aren’t asking people to spell their names.  Leave corrections in the comments or email me (see upper side bar right)
I type as fast as I can and while I once was a pretty good typist, my fingers are getting slower.  Also, my ears aren’t as good as they were.
So, what you should expect here is the gist of what people were saying and if there is something important you can look for it when the Board posts the Oct. 30, 2021 testimony.
Assume errors and omissions.  

 
Some Abbreviations
 SEI = Socio-Economic Integration
 FB= Fairbanks;
 NP = North Pole
v3 and v4 = Board maps versions 3 and 4
FNSB = Fairbanks North Star Borough
AFFR = Alaskans for Fair Redistricting (3rd Party)
AFFER = Alaskans for Fair and Equitable Redistricting (3rd Party)


About 10:15 am   Nicole Borremeo:  
James Squire = Delta, Gulkana - we should be connected with Eilson - they have missiles and so do we.  Drainage, geographic features should be part of this process.  I sent a map that does a much better job.

Up highway to Eilson, Denali Borough, Clear Air Force - moves the needle of SEI (Socio-Economic Integration) and compactness.  Koyukuk drainage.  

Directed to use the census numbers.  Our area has more PFD applications than shown in our Census Count.  No reason to deny them.  Privacy.  Boundaries in wilderness, not on highways.  If you can see campaign signs on both sides of the road, then that’s a problem because those people should be in same district.  

Nicole, Marcum - questions?

Fairbanks Area - AFFR Map

[Here's a link to the Board's Map Gallery]

Casey ?Cafort - Fairbanks.  Grown up in FB and NP and two distinct communities, shouldn’t be in one district.  FB oriented along river.  FMeyer.  V3 follows boundaries, but no reason to redistrict. Don’t follow those things precisely in Anchorage.  As recent UAF graduate.  Hope you keep UAF together - only AFFR map does that now.  UAF critical part of our community and economy.  Appreciate opportunity to be heard.

Nicole:  Thank you.  

Kelvin Rogers - Support AFFR and preference for version 4 over 3.  V3 makes no sense to me - puts us with NP a place I’ve been a few times over my 6 years in FB.  V4 splits up FB along lines that makes sense.  

10:19

?Bretta  McAdams - grew up in FB, schools here.  Learned to drive here.  Alaskalands, Blockbusters.  Like John Binkley.  V3 is political map by former politician that gerrymanders FB.  Also divides FB by n-s which is against the Chena River that goes east west.  Both AFFR and V4 give us better representation.  

10:22
Alissa Franklin? - FB community organizer here for about 21 years.  Raised and school and now work as organizer.  Really know the community.  Others my points as well.  Definitely not v3, unnatural to neighborhood, work, etc.  V4 and AFFR better job capturing that natural orientation.  Why v3 so bad?  D31  Ester, Fox, Goldstream, Farmers Loop - that’s a good hours drive to get to Two Rivers.  Completely different communities.  Talking about neighborhoods - how is this fair to any of these communities.  Eilson completely different needs from University.  How people compete with each other.   Not fair and equitable.  How do we best represent these needs without cutting district in half.  Majority of POC live in these areas.  Access to voting, have to cross two different districts to get to their voting place.  AFFER/AFFR? do better job of how we’re laid out, not competing with each other, but picking person who represents our communities/  Wish I could drive you around

Leo Hippert?  - Needlessly under represents FB  Treated FB differently from other places.  Things oriented east west.  As U student feel connected to U and Goldstream, Ester, similar values and have one voice on issues.  AFFR and v4 represents these, but v3 is bad.  AFFR has racial ???  NP and FB different interests.
Nicole - any SEI issues in AFFR maps that you’d like Board to consider.  A:  Not really didn’t do research on that.  

Stuart Chapin - FB for last 50 years.  Appreciate importance and glad listening to testimony.  Strongly prefer AFFR or v4 and feel v3 divides FB in ways that are not in the best interests.  Prefer AFFR for two reasons.  V3 under represents FB in state.  V3 doesn’t represent various communities that make up FB area.  FB along east west along Tanana River.  People who share values and service area interests should be grouped together .  AFFR much better than v3.   Hope you take the FB testimony into consideration because we all agree.

North Pole - Barbara Kendall?  50 years in Alasak.  Any plan for NP should include Eilson and Salcha.  Where we do shopping, churches, housing.  Some adjustment to AFFER plan, but concur that AFFR and v4 would do best.  Would increase population a bit - but in NSFB and better aligned.
Q:  You like AFFER.  Yes.  Prefer over v4.

Allison Cafort - lifelong FB resident, grew up in ?? And NP.  Now west FB.  Distinct communities and shouldn’t be in the same district.  V3 does that not good.  Also overpopulates.  V4 and AFFR follow east west orientation.  As current UAF student - keep U and Fox etc. together - where many faculty live.  AFFR map.  

Lori Huffer?  15 years FB.  And unique NP area.  Thanks for listening.  Support competitive fair and equitable map.  NOT v3.  Interested in AFFR and V4, better represents our communities.  FB and NP seen as separate communities.  Thanks for insuring we’ll have appropriate representation by not using v3 and focusing on AFFR and v4.  
Q:  Any SEI issues?  I guess we lost her

Gary Kendall - NP- overview comparisons of versions.  Balance several criteria - pop.  Compactness, SEI.  In interest of representation give more weight than just population .   AFFER map seems to be the best balance of factors under consideration.  NE corner of D6C - portion goes north of the river and down toward NP, that would be better placed with 9E, NP Moose Creek, based on where people are and work and interests  D8D, westward with Badger Road border- move it up and make border along the river better than the road itself.  AFFER map does better job of bringing in North Creek Salcha and Eilson .  Thank you.

Martha Roberts - final FB in queue for now.  50 years in FB mostly in University and now just north of Farmers loop.  Agree with others v3 shouldn’t be used.  FB in5 districts all the others have 6 districts.  Also separates NP from Eilson.  Main testimony is against v3 map.  I prefer the Senate minority map which puts my area with ??  Which seems better than with Fox.  
Nicole:  FB has 5 districts in both v3 and v4.
Martha:  Oh, I miscounted.  When release Senate pairings?
Nicole:  Not yet, plan to do closer to Nov 10.  These are still draft form.  

Move outside of interior - 

Sen. Tom Begich - State senate minority leader, here because Wednesday you asked views on constitutionality.  Touch lengthy.
Alaska Court have focused on lover deviations of house districts over time.  But Board seems to be moving to maps with higher deviations.  Many 3rd party plans have said there can be lower deviations without sacrificing the other criteria.   Likelihood v3 and v4 lawsuits because 
of deviations.  Those decisions March 21, 2002 Court - priority must be given first to Federal Constitution, VRA, and then to Alaska Constitution.  1.  Contiguousness and compactness, SEI, Community boundaries, geographic boundaries.     Representation over SEI.   Overemphasizing  SEI over others is inconsistent.  
First you draw the map with Alaska Constitution, then 

Reynolds and Brown - federal considerations — Alaska SC found Alaska should have narrower standards.  Newly available tech advances make it easy to meet lower deviations.  10% deviations in Anchorage meet federal standards, but burden shifted to board that lower deviations impracticable. If districts can be created with our technology.  Boroughs and cities are defined as SEI, then Board is compelled to lower the deviations.  As you heard from FB.  
All FB and Matsu districts and 16 Anchorage districts are all .14???   And Kenai and SE also .

Focus on deviation emerges from Hickel and 1998 - AK constitution requires relatively SEI - means we compare to proposed districts to previous districts and alternative districts.  
Board reduces FB representation and gives extra FB to other district.  



Hickel - excess pop shouldn’t be given to other districts.  It may be necessary to divide a borough, however where possible all the excess population should go to one district.  You want to give representation to those who deserve it.  Board maps don’t that   Proportional representation.  
Board’s counsel has interpreted this differently.  Kenai Peninsula Borough ….   Recognizes that it shouldn’t divide the municipalities, was open for legitimate non-discriminate polices.  In that passage, court conclusion honed in on MOA and Matsu B’s together because fractional seats.  That’s important.  Underscores how interpreted by the courts and how interpreted now.  
Footnote seven:  2002 case Matsu 3.8 and Anch - .? Would support 20.4 seats.  But Board gets 17 and Matsu gets 4 for 21 seats.  Saying because way board did it, created an additional seat.  Today, the over pop 5.8 for Matsu and 15.8 of Anchorage would create total of 16 + 6.  Excess then 2001 combining excess would be excess of ??? Seats and would have to look north or south to do that excess.   West was not excluded as an option.  Can’t be absorbed - 2001 told board to take hard look at north.  Now, today Board trying to do that.  Kenai, Matsu, Anch. And FB need low deviations meeting standards.  AFFR maps do this.  Board is compelled to meet standards of 3rd party maps.

Cordova with SE?  Court acknowledged to Baranof Island would be compact, but further would not.  Including Cordova in D5 to reduces deviation.  That ruling allows Board to consider Cordova with SE to reduce deviation.  

ER and Anch - part of SEI of Anchorage, but compelling testimony should ER be separate.  2 districts from ER and Peters Creek.  Might be compelling to combine house districts in this area into single Senate seat.  Anchorage neighborhoods substantial dispareity.  SEI - multiple compact continuous districts.  In Groh we considered ….   

If low deviations can be met without sacrificing AK constitutional criteria, it’s important.  

Kenai-  less disruption to overall map, should be considered.  Multiple ways to do Anch and FB under 1.4% deviation  SE   - more mathematical precision in urban areas.  Limits opportunities for gerrymandering.  
AK court has ruled that Delta Junction (2001) has no constitutional right to be in a single house district, as long as each portion is integrated.    Board should take hard look - Saxman is part of borough, more connected to Ketchikan than with other Native districts in SE.  

How you arrived at higher deviations is what matters.  
Lengthy answer - hope it answers your questions.  
Nicole:  Thank you.  Board did ask for clarification and apology.  Clarification - Board chose John Binkley to chair meeting but we are all equals.  


Returning to Fairbanks:
Darla Hudson?  - short comment.  Don’t support v3.  No sense to put FB with NP.  Been here for ??30 yers. Listening to Mr. Squires - not grouping Delta with Koyakuk.  Natural borders.  ??
Eilson and Salcha do most shopping in FB, not in Delta.
Christina Buckington??  - After reviewing maps, Doyon coalition along with aspects v4 and Minority Senate map.  Do not support v3.  Donut shape Doyon keeps contiguous urban and rural areas together.  Also integrate tribal communities.  Minority map keeps communities together though I haven’t reviewed the map beyond FB area. 

Mindy O’Neall - Presiding officer of FNSB Assembly - voted - stayed away from comments about one map.  Biggest concern - general underpopulation of overpopulated districts.  FB has right to 5 plus districts.  Ask that extra population be put into a single district.  Due to urban nature it’s unnecessary to require to go through other districts to get to other side of districts.

Neighborhoods that share values and common - Excess pop into one district rather than spreading among five districts. 

Nicole:  clarify - testify on behalf of  NSB Assembly A:  Yes

Ellen Murray McKazy? - Live -   2007 retired from teaching at UAF.  AFFR map best for us.  Binkley map out of balance.  Would have me with NP.  Not my community.  Overpopulates us. Underprepresented and Matsu and Anch overrep.  Does not match east-west orientation of FB.
V4 and AFFR maps respect east west divide.  First choice is AFFR map.  Second v4.  Thank you for considering my opinion and for your work.  

Nicole:  switch to SE, Kodiak, Kenai

???   I wanted to voice opinion of Kachemak, Homer on Kenai.  I oppose v3  spell my name: 
No thanks Terry, we have info already.  Board proposed maps v3 and v4 strongly oppose.  Seperating Fitz Creek from Homer makes no sense.  
Don’t understand Doyon map very well - Sen Minority looks very logical to me as well as the AFFER Kenai Peninsula looks logical.  Alll the others including AFFR makes no sense.  Separating Frizt Creek is out of the question.
Nicole:  We did Homer area weeks ago and others made same point.  
SE callers:

Mr. Witte???  I can’t do better than Sen Begich, but would add minimizing deviation so opposed to v3 and v4 and support Doyon, AFFR, and Senate Minority because they have smaller deviations. Oppose AFFER because of Mendenhall - and v3 because of obvious intentional carving out rep Story.   
Nicole:  For the record, the Story was corrected early on the map.  Can I ask a question about the deviation.  United Ketchikan Wrangell borough - keep Prince of Wales?
I’m in Juneau and I’ll leave that to SE people.
Nicole - divide between Juneau and Valley?
Mr.  Valley homogenous in terms of economics  AFFR and Sen Democrats have minor differences but keep valley as one district.  

Jaeleen Kookesh - Sealaska Corp - thank Board for their service.  Appreciate opportunity to comment.  Sealaska proud to work with Coalition with Doyon- urge to consider this map.  Specifically to issues of importance.  Borders of house districts inSE.  Rural Alaskan communities and support of Doyon around FB and NSB.
SE:  Compact, contiguous and SEI population 3.89 districts - two senate seats and four districts.  Preferred SE Alaska Island district.  Angoon, Kake, Sitka.  Key feature of SE is islands.  With exception of Admiralty Island in north.  Some options for Juneau.  [Can’t keep up with details]  Many rural communities with areas that do not share concerns and culture.  We support our coalition partners for rural communities
3.  Concerns about FB v3 map.  About 800 people more in each district.  Will submit written testimony.  Want to thank you.  History my late father lost his seat in rural Alaska. 
Nicole:  can PofWales Island be split?
Kookesh:  We didn’t look at breaking up communities.  Looking at PoW - at least the traditional Native communities stay together.  Don’t want to speak for the island.  
Nicole:  If you of PoW contacts, please have them contact us.
11:40

Jim Ayers- Thank you for service, maps and tables.  Worked in Juneau for most of 40 years - Douglas, Auk Bay.  Worked with some of you and respect you very much.  Our community is wonderful place to live, work, raise a family.  Community works well.  Talked to you a few weeks ago.  Community naturally meeting the fair, balanced, non-partisan way - Valley flow together.  Downtown flow together.  V3 and v4 bring divisiveness.  Board says they corrected concerns about line cutting out Story.  I heard that - if that correction you referred to mean you are no longer pursuing that?
Nicole:  yes it was corrected.  Unfortunate software glitch. No intention to pit current elected representatives.   Board has no knowledge where representative live.  No intention to pit incumbents against each other or protect them.
Ayers:  State suffers from continuing strife and divisiveness. Imperative you consider whether you actions increase that divisiveness in our state.  I worked with Bill Hudson.  He was elected in Juneau several times and he likely would be elected again.  If there is a reason or motivation of some to change the representatives we’ve elected, they should choose a candidate and not change the district to achieve your goals. Support Doyon, and ?? maps.  Urge you to do right thing for us.  And thank you again for your public servie.

Nicole:  Question from John Binkley
Binkley:  I have Borromeo’s comments - I believe the architect of that area in v3 and v4 have - there was an appendage and what you’re suggesting it was ??  [hard to understand I think he’s emphasizing it was accidental.]  We decided not to formally make those changes.  Just making maps - public hearing process  [can’t understand, bad connection]  
Ayers;  30 second Response?  Thank you so much Sen.  We’ve known each other a long time and great respect for you.  And firmly believe in your forthrightness and what you’ve said. I’ve looked at maps.  I don’t support v3 and v4.  I do support Doyon and irrespective of politics, I do believe you’ll look at the best aspects of the redistricting.  
John:  I’ll call back in and try to get better connection.
Nicole
Susan Warner in Gustavus.  Thank you for your work to fairly redistrict and for offering Doyon map that retains connection with Juneau and Haines.  Please consider D33 boundaries to have a say in our inside waters adjacent to our community.  

11:58am  Nicole:  that includes all the callers we have in queue.  
Juli Lucky:  We will be available until 4pm to call in.  
Calls will be prioritized by time for areas, but anyone can call. 

12:34   Caller from Juneau
?? Lyman - some maps left me horror struck.  Most favor Senate Minority map.  Don’t know how ? Harbor put together - or putting representatives together, clear gerrymandering.  My preference is Senate minority map. 

Nicole:  comments from Board.  Ms. Lyman, the board is committed to a fair map and no intentional gerrymandering.  

Times for certain regions:  SE currently, PWS and Kodiak, but no calls in line so anyone can call now.  
1pm Kenai Pen. Anchorage Matsu
2pm Northwest (I think that’s what she said)
3pm Statewide

12:43
Caller from Fairbanks
Leslie Peters - live just south of Chena Pump Road, since 1975.  Past redistricting.  This time since I’m retired I had time to look at maps carefully.  Don’t agree with v3 or v4.  I prefer plan forAFFR, less community division and less deviation.  Allows North Pole to have its own rep.  I’ve worked and taken class at University and don’t have that much in common with other places.  More in common with peoples over the ridge.  Mr. Binkley know that.  Putting districts in direct conflict.  Should look at AFFR maps.  Thank you for your efforts, has to be tough task.  

Binkley:  thank you Leslie for coming out and testifying and paying attention. It is hard, daunting putting all the pieces together statewide. To get the best possible map.  We share a district, we’re neighbors.  Do we keep the district as a whole or take the extra .2 population.  Which part of FB do we send to that extra district?  West side?  Eilson?  Or the North side?  Or keep it altogether even tho overpopulated.  
Leslie:  Thank you.  I looked at deviation numbers and I understand that.  Biggest reason tried to find those that have less deviation.  Thanks for listening.  

12:48  Andrea Dewees - calling from SE Lifelong Alaskan.  In support of map proposed by the Senate Minority, best for SE.  Appreciate your considering interests of voters not incumbents.  I like how Juneau is grouped.

12:52
Catherine Heinz?   Thanks for having this on a Saturday.  I live in Two Rivers, a pretty gerrymandered district and I hope this will change.  I think you know what I’m talking about.  I looked at proposed changes and want to throw my support to v4 or Doyon.  Want to see the communities united and not spread out - like Chena Hotsprings.  That’s all.  
Binkley:  Thanks for participating.  I appreciate what you’re saying over past cycles - your current rep is from Tok and that’s difficult for someone in NSFB is difficult. 
Catherine:  I realize that represent statewide issues as much as when my neighbors talk about what’s important to us and whether this person in Tok knows anything about our neighborhood, schools, etc.  A huge district that person has to carry and canvas.  Not useful.  
Binkley:  I appreciate that.  Question before us really is do we keep the whole Borough together in five overpopulated districts or do we break it apart and send a small portion to a rural district.  
12:59
1:05  Anchorage Chelsea ??  Support the AFFR map.  Only one that fairly represents the diverse communities of east Anchorage, Mountain View and downtown.  Not connected to ER.  Although the board may prefer one of their own maps, I’m hoping they consider AFFR.  I live in South Anchorage.  AFFR doesn’t pair hillside with East Anchorage. 
Nicole:  Any SEI criteria to consider?
Not at this time, but I’ll get back to you if they come up.  

1:33  Christopher Constant - speaking personally.  Not as chair of Assembly redistricting committee.  PreferAFFR map.  ER kept separate.  ER has own perspective.  Govt Hill connected with ER is several maps that are politically opposite with how we live and organize our lives.  ER prides itself on large maps, wells and sewer system.  In my neighborhood small lots, city utilities.  Listen to ER they have been clamoring for their own city.  They have unity of demographics and economics that is very different from our community.  So strongly urge you to use AFFR map.  

2pm - Alaska NW Districts now

John Sowell??? Juneau  Concern with redistricting maps.  Against each other.  Takeoverof the country.  Adding  districts to make up imbalance.  We’ll be in SC.  Hope we do.  I am aware the intention is to have story.  I think there is something untoward about redistricting.  Maintain our representation .  That’s about it.  Thanks.  Not much business this afternoon.  Do want to be more specific.  Can’t give.  Representation here in Juneau.  Thank you.
2:12 
Kotzebue - John Lincoln - President of NANA regional corporations.  15,000 shareholders in NW Alaska including Buckland And Deering.  Keeping our SE Integrated  together.  Clear evidence of 
Roads, ancient social ties and more.  All testifiers in Kotzebue want to keep Buckland And Deering together.  

3:09 - John Rasmon?  - FB  would like to keep Salcha, Wainright, and ??  together.
Nicole:  Thanks for your clear preference of v4.  

3:15 back  Anchorage
Diane Preston - After navigating your website you did a lot of work.  AFFR and AFFER maps hard to navigate.  AFFR map seems the best.  AFFER pairs me with Chena Hot springs road and separates me with my across the street neighbors.  Senate Minority also splits my neighborhood too.  V4 keeps me with my neighbors. AFFR looks the best for Fairbanks.  

3:29 Anchorage caller

Laura  ??  AFFR plan shows all neighborhoods equally represented no district varying more than 36 people.  Only one that fairly groups downtown, mt. View, Fairview.   Doesn’t group downtown with JBER.  Follows community council districts as much as possible.  Has Chugiak and ER form own Senate district.  Eagle Exit wants to separate so they should have their own Senator.  

3:47 pm caller from Fairbanks
Mary Elizabeth ??? - here over 30 years.  Important to all of us.  My issue concern with v3 not fair for the Borrough.  According to the Census, we should get 5.23 house seats.  Five seats for the borough and then one other seat with the excess population.  Should go to an adjoining district to meet one person one vote standard.  
Binkley:  What part should be put into an adjacent district?
Mary Elizabeth ??  - West side - they have their own style.  
Binkley - where do we put the extra 4000 people - go into a district with representative far away - people complained about being represented by someone from Tok.  

4pm
Nicole Borromeo, also online Bethany Marcum and Chair John Binkley have been online and we are signing off now.  Adjourned.