A former state lawmaker wants to increase the size of Arizona’s Redistricting Commission. The current five-member group was established by voters in 2000 to draw legislative and congressional districts.
The proposal would amend the Arizona constitution to create a nine-member redistricting commission.
Former legislator Doug Quelland filed the proposal. He was removed from office by the Arizona Clean Elections Commission in 2009 after he was found to have violated campaign finance rules.
Currently, the way the commission works now, Republicans and Democrats each appoint two members to the commission.
“To add insult to injury, who puts the one independent on the commission?” Quelland said. “The two Democrats and two Republicans. That's ridiculous.”
He said independents need to be fairly represented in the body creating voter districts. The potential amendment could alter to the way the group operates.
Attorney Joe Kanefield represents the redistricting commission.
“The kinds of changes that are proposed here and the manner in which the language is drafted would lend itself to a lot of interpretation issues, which really means there will likely be a lot of litigation,” Kanefield said.
More than 225,000 valid signatures supporting these changes need to be collected and submitted to the state by July for this amendment to be sent to voters in November of 2016.
