HomeMy WebLinkAboutComm. 013 - 2021-09-22 (testimony) Common Cause Hawaii: items on September 23, 2021 agendaCOMMUNICATION 013
7 Cammon Cause
Hawaii
Holding Power Accountable
September 22, 2021
P.O. Box 2240
Hoiiofulu, Hawaii 96804
808.275.6275
Redistricting Commission (Via Email Only)
Office of the County Clerk
25 Aupuni Street, Suite 1402
Hilo, HI 96720
RE: September 23, 2021, Agenda of the 2021 Hawaii County Redistricting
Commission
Dear 2021 Hawai'i County Redistricting Commission:
Common Cause Hawaii is a nonpartisan, nonprofit, grassroots organization dedicated to
upholding the core values of American democracy and ensuring a fair and transparent
reapportionment and redistricting process.
Common Cause Hawai'i continues to testify in strong support of a transparent reapportionment
and redistricting process. We ask again that the Commission record each of its meetings to be
made publicly available as soon as possible for later viewing. Providing recordings of these
meetings will ensure greater transparency for and public access to the 2021 Hawai'i County
Redistricting Commission meetings.
Additionally, we note Act 220 (2021) amended the Sunshine Law to allow the conduct of
remote meetings in non -emergency times and would take effect January 1, 2022. Act 220
allows boards and the commissions the option to use interactive conference technology to
conduct remote meetings under the Sunshine Law, while still retaining the option to conduct
traditional in -person meetings at a single meeting site or at multiple meeting sites connected
by interactive conference technology. Thus, it is reasonable to continue with remote meetings,
which should be recorded for later viewing.
Common Cause Hawai'i also calls upon the Commission to count incarcerated people
according to their home addresses as of April 1, 2020, the official Census Date, for the
purposes of drawing council district lines. Including incarcerated persons in the population
count for the district in which their facility is located alters representational proportions and, as
a result, the voting power of residents. Counting HawaiTs incarcerated population according to
their home addresses will: eliminate this issue and ensure an accurate and true
reapportionment of Oahu's council districts. Attached is information on how to count
incarcerated people at their home addresses.
Lastly, Common Cause Hawai'i commends this Commission for honoring the intent of the
Sunshine Law and facilitating public testimony at the beginning of every agenda and after each
agenda item. Given the consequential matters that will be discussed during the meeting after
public testimony is taken, the public should be allowed additional opportunity to testify after
each agenda item and not be limited to giving testimony at the beginning of the meeting.
"Periodic testimony may be especially appropriate in situations where a controversial or
significant issue that was not anticipated develops during the board's discussions and
decision -making." Kanahele v. Maui Ct . Council 130 Hawaii 22$ 248 307 P.3d 1174 1194
(2013).
If you have any questions or concerns, I am available to discuss further at 808-230-9071 or
jacob@kaiwiula.com.
Very respectfully yours,
Jacob Aki
Jacob Aki
Common Cause Hawaii
3
Cam mon PRISON
Cause POLICY INITIAIIVI
Step by Step Guide: How to count
incarcerated people at home
An overview of the steps involved in adjusting state redistricting data to
create equitable solutions to prison gerrymandering
iEp
0
® Work with the state's correctional agency to get data for people incarcerated on
Census Day, including; address where person is incarcerated, last known address
prior to incarceration, age, race, and Hispanic origin, if available.
Get state
o To anonymize the data, a unique identifier should be assigned to each record.
prison data
o In most cases, the data on race is incomplete or the categories used by the
from the
correctional agency do not line up with census categories, and states will have
state's
to take a best -fit approach to matching the corrections data to the census
correctional
data.
agency
o If the state maintains alternative addresses (address provided at arrest or
expected address on release, etc,) those should be included as well,
• Ensure address data is as specific and accurate as possible, including street, city,
zip code, and state,
• Remove all addresses that list another state.
• Geocode all remining addresses - geocoding can be done using geocoding
software (i.e. ESRI, MapMarker) or the Census Bureau's batch geocoder, available
Geocode to states specifically for this purpose,
individual o Some states contract with a vendor to do the geocoding.
address data o The geocoding process will likely identify additional addresses in need of
correction (problems such as "street" instead of "avenue" that look like a
complete and accurate address on first glance but fail to match to a mappable
address).
• For any addresses that fail to geocode, establish a protocol for correcting
addresses and recording any edits made.
o In 2011, New York established a set of alphabetical codes to note the source of
supplemental information used to clean up addresses.
o Some corrections will be easy, like misspellings or incorrect abbreviations for
cities or street names.
o Other addresses may take more research such as looking at additional address
data provided by the state's corrections agency (i.e. booking address) or
looking at maps of municipal boundaries, zip codes, or online mapping sites
like Google Maps.
After corrections are made, run all the corrected addresses through the geocoder
again, and repeat this process for as many iterations as practicable.
States handle unusable addresses differently — some require those individuals be
counted where they are incarcerated; others, like California, assign the individual
to a randomly determined census block within the smallest geographical area that
can be determined from the information provided.
NOTE: Do not let the perfect be the enemy of good! Every person counted at home
is one that is not counted in the wrong place. States should make their best effort
to correct and geocode as many of the addresses provided, but no state will get
100% accuracy. As a rough guide, a 70% success rate would be considered a good
outcome in most states going through the process for the first time.
• Subtract the correctional population reported by the census in the group quarters
tables of the redistricting data,
Subtract the
• Some states may require or have discretion to subtract federal' prison populations,
relevant prison
• Some states, like Maryland, require that individuals without an address be counted
populations
at the facility address. In that case, take any unmatched addresses from Step Two,
from census
above, and add those populations back into the census block containing the
blocks where I facility,
prisons are
located
• The state will have the data set that best counts incarcerated people at home and
minimizes padding of districts with prisons once it completes Steps 1 thru 3: people
Use adjusted with geocodable addresses have been counted in their home census blocks;
data for correctional group quarters counts have been subtracted from the census blocks
redistricting where prisons are located; and people without a last known, unusable or out-of-
state address have either been subtracted or placed back in the census block where
they are incarcerated, depending on what is permitted or required under state law.
iAdditional resources:
Quick reference chart for state -specific legislation:
https://www. prisonei-saftliecensus.oi-g/models/cliai't.litm l
Quick reference on state options for addressing prison gerrymandering:
https//www.prisonersofthecensus.org/factsheets/national/state solhrtions.pdf
A detailed overview of the reallocation process used by New York and Maryland in 2010.
https://www.detiios.org/policy-briefs/implementing-reform-how-maryiand-new-York-ended-
prison-gerrymandering
For questions and more information on prison gerrymandering, visit
https:// www,prisonersofthecensus.org
For questions and more information about redistricting, visit
https://wwvv,commoncause-org/our-work/gerrymandering-and-
representation/gerrymandering-redistricting/