Arizona voters are divided into districts for the purpose of voting for Federal House of Representatives and State Legislators. Every 10 years since 2001, the Redistricting Commission convenes to decide the new districts.
Voters will find they are in two districts: A Congressional District (federal) and a Legislative District (State Legislature). The Redistricting Commission and process started life as Prop 106 in 2000. Once the voters passed Prop 106, it became law and you can find it on the State of Arizona Legislature website as part of Article 4, Part 2, Section 1.
The law provides that by February 28th of each year that ends in a 1, the Redistricting Commission must be established. The Commission currently consists of 5 members: 2 Republicans, 2 Democrats, and 1 Independent.
To qualify as a Commissioner the person must be a registered Arizona voter for three or more years preceding the appointment. The Commissioners cannot have been appointed to, elected to, or a candidate for public office in the past 3 years (except school board) or been a precinct committeeman/woman. They cannot have been an officer of a political party, a registered lobbyist or an officer of a candidate campaign. The Commissioners are appointed.
The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments creates a pool of possible Commissioners. The Commission on Appellate Court Appointments must be formed by January 8th of each year ending in 1. Who makes up this pool of candidates? The law states the pool of candidates will be a total of 25 people: 10 from each of the two largest political parties in Arizona, and 5 people who are registered with neither of the two largest parties in Arizona.
By January 31st the highest-ranking officer elected by the Az House of Representatives will make one appointment to the Commission. Then Minority Leader of the Az House of Representatives chooses a nominee from the pool, the highest-ranking Az Senate officer appoints someone, and finally the Az Senate Minority Leader appoints someone. No more than 2 of the 4 appointed Commission members may be from the same County.
Once the 4 Commissioners have been appointed, the Secretary of State will call a meeting of the Commission to select the Chair of the Committee from the pool of 5 nominees who are not registered with one of the two large parties in Arizona.
Secretary of State Hobbs called the 2021 Independent Redistricting Commission Meeting to elect a Chair on January 14, 2021. You can watch the recording of the meeting as Commissioner Mehl (Pima County), Commissioner Watchman (Apache County), Commissioner Lerner (Maricopa County) and Commissioner York (Maricopa County) interview and choose the Chair. At the meeting the Commissioners chose Erica Neuberg (2:32) as Chair of the Commission and its 5th member.
The map of Congressional and Legislative Districts must result in the creation of districts that are of equal population and in a grid-like pattern. The districts must be contiguous and respect communities of interest as much as possible. The districts should use city, town and county boundaries as much as possible.
Once the Commission draws up the draft map, the draft map will be available for public comment for 30 days. To watch future meetings and see a copy of the draft map, go to the Arizona Secretary of State website.