A committee of 14 Republicans and two Democrats must create new districts that are roughly equal in population using fresh figures from the 2020 Census. But due to pandemic-induced delays in the national headcount, the panel has only a few short months to generate a map before the full Legislature considers the plan, likely during a special session in November.
Lawmakers formed 47 districts — each with one senator and two representatives — when they drew the current lines a decade ago, and committee members signaled Thursday they likely won’t add or subtract districts this time around.
No members of the panel presented proposals for new political boundaries Thursday, but discussion of rural-to-urban migration and the possibility of subdividing House districts offered a glimpse of the challenges facing mapmakers.
North Dakota’s current legislative districts were crafted using figures from the 2010 U.S. Census. (Screenshot via North Dakota Legislature)
North Dakota’s population increased nearly 16% between 2010 and 2020 — a greater jump than all but three states over the same period. The Fargo and Bismarck metros continued to swell, while the western Oil Patch saw some of the fastest growth of any region in the country. However the final lines are drawn, those areas are sure to pick up more legislative districts, said committee chairman Rep. Bill Devlin, R-Finley.
At the same time, 30 mostly rural counties lost population, which inevitably translates to expanded districts and less representation in the northern and eastern parts of the state. Devlin estimated that rural areas could cede three or four districts in the reconstituted map.
Matt Perdue, a lobbyist for the North Dakota Farmers Union, said his organization is worried about the prospect of further-bloated rural districts where constituents have less access to their legislators.
Devlin, who hails from an already massive district that lost 7% of its population over the last decade, said the principle of “one person, one vote” trumps concerns over the ballooning size of rural districts.
“You’ve got to go by the numbers,” Devlin said. “We’re going to have big rural districts — that’s nothing new.”
Perdue joined a handful of activists, American Indian tribes and Democratic lawmakers in calling for the committee to split each district into two separate, equally populated House districts. Supporters say subdivided House districts, which appear in Minnesota, would allow for closer legislator-to-constituent interaction and better representation of specific interests in large rural districts.
Collette Brown, the Gaming Commission director for the Spirit Lake Nation, said non-Native American voters have diluted the voices of tribal members in the past, creating a need for lawmakers to craft single-member House districts around American Indian reservations. Districts containing the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and the Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation are not currently represented by self-identified tribal members.
“Where there are tribal communities such as Spirit Lake, the Legislature should carefully analyze whether there should be single-member House districts to ensure tribal communities have equitable representation,” Brown said. “Failure to draw single-member House districts can dilute the Native vote and may violate the Voting Rights Act.”
Devlin and Grand Forks GOP Sen. Ray Holmberg said they’re open to subdividing House districts around the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation and Fort Berthold, which each have more than 5,000 residents. However, the longtime lawmakers said it’s unlikely mapmakers will split House districts around Standing Rock or Spirit Lake since the reservations have fewer than 4,000 residents — less than a quarter of the anticipated ideal district size of about 16,600 residents.
Devlin and Holmberg said there isn’t much appetite among lawmakers for subdividing all 47 districts.
The committee is slated to meet in Fargo on Sept. 8 before returning to Bismarck several times later in the month.
