HB 122 COUNTY REDISTRICTING TASK FORCE

Rep Kathleen M Cates

Actions: HPREF [2] HGEIC/HAFC-HGEIC [3] DP-HAFC

Scheduled: Not Scheduled

 House Bill 122 (HB 122) appropriates two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) to the secretary of state to convene a county redistricting task force. 

 House Bill 122 (HB 122)  appropriates two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) from the General Fund (GF) to the secretary of state (SOS) for expenditure in Fiscal Years (FY) 2024 and 2025 to convene a county redistricting task force to study and develop recommended
redistricting procedures for New Mexico counties and to contract for services necessary to the work of the task force.

Any unexpended or unencumbered balance remaining at the end of FY 2025 reverts to the GF.
 

 There was a NM Redistricting Task Force in 2020, the goal of which was to develop recommendations to present to the N.M. Legislature on redistricting rules and processes. It included a recommendation for a constitutional amendment that would take redistricting authority away from the legislature. A similar bill is being introduced again this session.
In 2021, the legislature called for a new redistricting commission that would develop three to five proposed maps for each body that the Legislature would choose from.
The state supreme court on appeal upheld the congressional district map that Republicans challenged as being “gerrymandered”. The term gerrymandering is used to describe the practice of redrawing political districts in a way that benefits the party in power. It dates back to 1812, when Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry drew boundaries for one district that some said resembled a salamander.
 

  It relates to SB Bill 227060.