SD redistricting panel plans hearings for summer

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) – A panel of state lawmakers that will draw new boundaries for South Dakota's legislative districts decided Monday to hold public hearings this summer in the state's two largest urban areas and on American Indian reservations in the southwest part of the state.

The Legislative Redistricting Committee tentatively decided to hold five meetings before recommending a plan to a special session of the Legislature set for Oct. 24. Public hearings will likely be held in Rapid City and Sioux Falls and on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian reservations, all areas likely to present challenges as legislative boundaries are redrawn.

The 15-member panel chose House Speaker Val Rausch, R-Big Stone City, and Senate Majority Leader Russell Olson, R-Wentworth, as co-chairs.

The 35 legislative districts are redrawn every 10 years to reflect population shifts reported by the U.S. Census.

Rausch said initial census numbers indicate the Sioux Falls and Rapid City areas each will gain at least one district. The committee may establish an outside boundary for both urban areas and allow lawmakers from those areas to recommend how they should be carved up into individual districts.

The Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations are the only two areas in South Dakota specifically mentioned in the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which means the state's plan for dividing that area into legislative districts must gain clearance from the U.S. Justice Department. Legislative districts in the area must be drawn to protect voting rights of American Indians.

Specific dates for the committee's meetings will be set later, but Rausch said he expects to hold meetings in June, July, August and September. He said lawmakers will take public testimony and discuss specific ideas when they meet in June.

“When we come to that first meeting, let's come ready to work,” Rausch said. “It's going to be a lot of slicing and dicing. The state's population has moved around.”

Most districts have one Senate member and two House members elected at large, but two Senate districts in areas with substantial Indian populations have been divided into two House districts, each of which elects its own House member.

Jim Fry, director of the Legislative Research Council, said census numbers indicate the optimum district would have a population of 23,262, but court rulings have established that they can vary by 5 percent above or below that ideal number.

The Legislature has purchased special software for redistricting, but lawmakers and others will have to visit the Capitol to use it, Fry said.

Former Democratic Rep. Bill Thompson of Sioux Falls said he and other members of the public want access to the census data used by the committee so they can make suggestions for drawing district boundaries.