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comments on Comm. 67, Bill 18 re. redistricting by Cory Harden,PO Box 10265,Hilo, Occupied Hawai'i 96721 mh @interpac.net 808- 968 -8965 for Hawaii County Council. 9 AM Wednesday, February 16, 2011, Hilo i support changes in how we do redistricting. since the last effort was so contentious, but we need to act with care. The redistricting manual Ms. Ford used says "after the 1990 census 20 states had suits in state courts concerning redistricting plans; 28 states had suits in federal court. Eleven states had suits in both state and federal courts on the same plan. New York had cases in four different federal courts and three different state courts." [1, p. 33] We need to act with care to protect the County from costly, time - consuming, contentious lawsuits. Mr. Yoshimoto was concerned because Ms. Ford didn't read original court decisions when writing this bill, but used interpretations of court decisions from the manual. But t think that's okay, because it takes a legal background to understand court decisions; the author of the manual has excellent credentials as Senate Counsel for Minnesota; and I assume Corporation Counsel will review this bill. Two sections may need to be clarified. The first section, in definitions (p. 2) says "Permanent resident... No person shall be deemed to have gained or lost a residence simply because of a person's presence or absence in compliance with military or naval orders of the United States, or while engaged in aviation or navigation, or while a student in any institution of learning." The meaning of "you don `t gain or lose because of presence or absence" is difficult to understand. The second section, p. 3 item (2) says "Nonresident military personnel, nonresident military dependents, nonresident students... shall be excluded from the permanent, resident population base..." This may contradict the first section. Mahalo for your work on this important bill. [1] "How to Draw Redistricting Plans That Will Stand Up in Court. " by Peter S Wattson, Senate Counsel, Minnesota Comm. No. (0 �• 1 y Ref. To: Ref. Dope F F R 1 6? n t ,