Protecting Your Rights: Serving Sand Lake, Spenard and Turnagain
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In this issue:
• Redistricting Comments
• Words to Remember
• New Efforts to Combat Opioid Epidemic
• Glass Recycling at West High
• Give AK a Shot
• Community Events
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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The Alaska Redistricting Board is in the process of approving new state house and senate districts for the 2022 election. The redistricting process set forth in the Alaska Constitution is designed to prevent gerrymandering—where one party or another party attempts to draw election districts in an unnatural way to favor some and disadvantage others. Comments on the proposed plans are due in November.
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Redistricting Comments
The Alaska Redistricting Board (the “Board”) is scheduled to approve a new legislative district plan. The public comment period is open until the final map is selected on November 10, 2021. You may provide public testimony via email at testimony@akredistrict.org or by webform. We recommend submitting comments by November 1.
The Board has published information for proposed plans on its website that includes interactive maps. The website does not contain any information about the process for creating each plan. Similarly, the website makes reference to the Alaska Constitution and Alaska Supreme Court cases that addressed prior redistricting efforts, but does not provide any description of the process for making a plan. The absence of this important information is unfortunate because members of the public who want to participate have little or no guidance on how to do so. Further, we are left to guess and speculate about how and why the drafters of each plan believe their plan meets the constitutional requirements that are designed to prevent gerrymandering.
Should you decide to submit comments, it helps to discuss particular plans and identify the reasons why you support or oppose a particular plan.
Constitutional Requirements
The Alaska Supreme Court has established a 2-step process for the Board to conduct its work. First, the Board must “design a reapportionment plan based on the requirements of the Alaska Constitution.” Second, the Board must test the reapportionment plan against the federal Voting Rights Act, which protects minority representation. If the plan does not meet the Alaska Constitutional requirements, the second analysis under the Voting Rights Act is unnecessary. If the plan raises voting rights concerns, it may require modification of some—but not all—of the plan.
Alaska’s Constitution lays out very specific criteria for drawing legislative maps, which do not include helping one political party or another or trying to shape the make-up of future legislatures. Partisan gerrymandering is not permitted by our constitution. Here are the constitutional criteria that should guide legislative map-making:
Contiguity
“Contiguous territory is territory that is bordering or touching,” recognizing that a continuous district may include open sea. One should be able to reach “every part of the district … from every other part without crossing the district boundary.” Some of the districts don’t meet the contiguity requirement.
Compactness
Compact means “having a small perimeter in relation to the area encompassed” without creating odd-shaped districts or adding appendages to an otherwise compact district. A review of the various maps shows some districts that don’t meet the compactness requirement.
Socioeconomic Integration
“[T]he requirement that districts be composed of relatively integrated socio-economic areas helps to ensure that a voter is not denied his or her right to an equally powerful vote.” The delegates to the Alaska Constitutional Convention explained that “[w]here people live together and work together and earn their living together, …. they should be logically grouped that way.” Boroughs and municipalities are considered socio-economically integrated.
Equal Protection: One-Person, One-Vote
In organized boroughs and municipalities, the burden is on the Board to show that it successfully minimized deviations from one district to the next. As discussed above, maximum deviation in urban areas of approximately 1% means each district should not differ from the target population of 18,335 per district by more than 0.5%. A spreadsheet consolidating all six proposed plans shows numerous districts in some of the plans with greater than 0.5% deviation.
Proposed Redistricting Plans
- 27 of the 32 districts in the larger boroughs and municipalities (Anchorage, Mat-Su, Kenai, Fairbanks, and Juneau) have a deviation from the statewide population target (18,335 people) of more than the preferred 0.5% deviation and do not meet the one-person, one-vote requirements.
- Eagle River Districts 23 and 24 unnecessarily create a large "donut" district that surrounds a small "hole" district in the middle of the donut and are not contiguous or compact.
- Anchorage District 15 would require a person to cross District 14 to get from the east part of District 15 to neighborhoods in the southwest corner of District 15 and is not contiguous or compact.
- 26 of the 34 districts in the larger boroughs and municipalities have a deviation from the target population of more than the preferred 0.5% deviation and do not meet the one-person, one-vote requirements.
- Juneau District 3 and District 4 unnecessarily create a large "donut" district and a small "hole" district and, in addition, would require a person to cross District 4 (Mendenhall Valley and Lemon Creek) to get from the northwest part of District 3 (Auke Bay) to the southern part of District 3 (downtown Juneau and Douglas Island), and is not contiguous or compact.
- 18 of the 33 districts in the larger boroughs and municipalities have a deviation from the target population of more than the preferred 0.5% deviation and do not meet the one-person, one-vote requirements.
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Southeast Districts 1 and 2 are drawn to split Ketchikan into two districts even though its population is less than half of the 18,335 target (pop. was 8,228 in 2019), showing that both districts are not socioeconomically integrated.
- Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 are generally long, narrow, and sinuous and are not continuous or compact.
- Districts 1, 2, 3, and 4 are drawn to put Representatives Ortiz and Kreiss-Tomkins into the same district as well as Representatives Hannan and Story into the same district, which is gerrymandering and may also run afoul of the federal Voting Rights Act.
- District 32 includes portions of the Kenai Peninsula in the west to Girdwood and the Chugach Mountains in the east and is divided by Turnagain Arm and is not contiguous or compact.
- District 5 puts Cordova—a coastal community with ferry service—in the same district as numerous interior villages that are not on the ocean and separates Cordova from several similar coast communities, showing that the district is not socio-economically integrated.
- Only 6 of the 33 districts in the larger boroughs and municipalities have a deviation from the target population of more than the preferred 0.5% deviation and reasonably satisfy the one-person, one-vote requirements.
- The plan reflects efforts to protect Alaska Native voting rights by making adjustments in the rural districts, including Western Alaska, the North Slope, the Interior, and Southeast Alaska, and assure fair and effective representation.
- 15 of the 33 districts in the larger boroughs and municipalities have a deviation from the target population of more than the preferred 0.5% deviation and do not meet the one-person, one-vote requirements.
- District 34 is not compact.
- Only 5 of 33 districts in the larger boroughs and municipalities have a deviation from the target population of more than the preferred 0.5% deviation and reasonably satisfy the one-person, one-vote requirements.
- The plan reflects efforts to protect Alaska Native voting rights by making adjustments in the rural districts, including Western Alaska, the North Slope, the Interior, and Southeast Alaska, and assure fair and effective representation.
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Words to Remember
As we discussed in our recent e-newsletter, the challenges facing our community task all of us to work together and recognize our common humanity. The words of the late Secretary of State Colin Powell are a welcome reminder about working together as we move forward.
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New Efforts to Combat Opioid Epidemic
Updated provisional data from the CDC from March 2020 to March 2021 shows drug overdose deaths jumped 38.5% in Alaska. At the end of May, DHSS announced opioid overdoses saw a 165% spike in 2020. As part of the state's effort to reverse these trends, Governor Dunleavy issued an Administrative Order on Oct. 1 to establish the Governor's Advisory Council on Opioid Remediation to manage and allocate opioid abatement funds.
Last month SAMHSA also awarded $3.87 million in grant money to Alaska to combat the overdose epidemic. The funding includes over $1 million to the Eastern Aleutian Tribes for Medication Assisted Treatment, $1.8 million divided between six separate Tribal Opioid Response grants, $788,558 to Fairbanks Native Association for a Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment grant, and $250,000 to ANTHC through a First Responders Addiction Recovery Act grant.
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Recycling of Glass, Aluminum, and Plastic Bottles Available at West High School
Anchorage Solid Waste Services has announced that they now have glass recycling at West High School! SWS accepts clean glass bottles and containers at these drop-offs (labels are fine, BUT NO CAPS, please!) — as well as aluminum and plastic bottles (#1) and plastic jugs (#1 & #2). SWS works with the AWWU to use recycled glass aggregate for utility sewer and water projects. Recycled glass is also used locally on the new Central Transfer Station construction project.
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Give AK a Shot
Now through October 30, Alaskans vaccinated for COVID-19 are eligible to enter the Alaska Chamber’s “Give AK a Shot” drawing for a chance to win $49,000. A total of 18 prize drawings split between two categories (Alaskans aged 18 and older and Alaskans aged 12-17) will be awarded.
To enter, participants are asked to provide their basic information at GiveAKaShot.com.
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Community Events
Mark your calendars for these upcoming events:
Spenard Community Council
When: Wednesday, November 3 at 7:00 PM
Turnagain Community Council
When: Thursday, November 4 at 7:00 PM
Sand Lake Community Council
When: Monday, November 8 at 6:30 PM
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Tastee Freez Vaccination Clinics
Free ice cream cones for anyone who comes to get a free vaccine! Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson will be administered to anyone over 12 years of age.
When: Friday, October 22 and 29 from 5:00 – 8:00 PM
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As always, please let us know if you have any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
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CONTACT INFORMATION
(907) 465-4919
State Capitol Bldg. Rm 118
Juneau, Alaska 99801
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CONTACT THE GOVERNOR
(907) 465-3500
550 West 7th Ave. Suite 1700
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
STATE OF ALASKA
State Info: (907) 269-5111
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CONTACT THE ADN
Write a Letter to the Editor
Submit your letter to the Anchorage Daily News via email or web form.
attn: Letters to the Editor
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