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Inventory of the California State Senate Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee Records,
1850-2006
See Series description for ID numbers.
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Title: California State Senate Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee Records
Dates: 1850-2006
Collection number: See Series description for ID numbers.
Creator:
California State Senate Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee
Collection Size:
52 cubic feet
Repository:
California State Archives
Sacramento, California
Abstract: The Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee is the most recent Senate committee to oversee election
law, redistricting and reapportionment, and, beginning in 2005, constitutional amendments. Throughout the life of the committee
its scope appears to have remained that of bills relating to elections and reapportionment, with the addition of hearing constitutional
amendments in 2005. The Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee records consist of Bill
Files, 1969, 1975-1980, 1982-2006, Hearing Files, 1967-1975, Contested Election Files, 1850-1937, Reapportionment Files,
1967-1975, 1982-2001, Reapportionment Hearings, 1961, 1971-2001, Reapportionment Court Case Files, 1982-2002, Subject Files,
1962-2004, Correspondence, 1974-2000, Maps and Data Files, 1965-1967, Demographic and Political Profiles, 1992-1993, Miscellaneous
Reports, 1851-1858, 1973-1996, and News Clippings, 1980-2004. It is anticipated that the Archives will receive further records
from the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee. Researchers should check for recently
received, unprocessed records of this committee.
Physical location: California State Archives
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
While the majority of the records are open for research, any access restrictions are noted in the record series descriptions.
For permission to reproduce or publish, please contact the California State Archives. Permission for reproduction or publication
is given on behalf of the California State Archives as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility
for possible infringement which may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives
collections.
[Identification of item], California State Senate Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Committee Records,
LP[number]:[folder number], California State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Sacramento, California.
The State Archives received these records in accordance with California Government Code 9080(b) which requires legislative
committees to transfer their records to the State Archives when they are no longer needed by the committee.
The Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee is the most recent Senate committee to oversee election
law, redistricting and reapportionment, and, beginning in 2005, constitutional amendments.
The first committee that had elections under its purview was Privileges and Elections. It was created as a standing committee
of the Senate by the President in 1849. Its purpose was to "examine the returns of the elections of Senators as communicated
by the Secretary of State." In 1851 the committee was renamed simply Elections and appears to have expanded its work to include
bills relating to elections as well as the examination of election returns. This committee was renamed Elections and Election
Laws in 1903, before reverting back to the Elections Committee in 1913, which it remained until 1967 when it became the Elections
and Reapportionment Committee. The committee shorted its name again to simply the Elections Committee in 1985, before reverting
back to the Elections and Reapportionment Committee in 1989, a name it kept until 2005, when it became the Elections, Reapportionment,
and Constitutional Amendments Committee. Throughout the life of the committee its scope appears to have remained that of bills
relating to elections and reapportionment, with the addition of hearing constitutional amendments in 2005.
The chairs of these committees from 1900-2006:
Delvin, Robert T. (Rep.), 1901-1902
Beslshaw, C.M. (Rep.), 1903-1904
Leavitt, Frank W. (Rep.), 1905-1906
Walker, George S. (Rep.), 1907-1908
Estudillo, Miguel (Rep.), 1909-1912
Hewitt, Leslie R. (Rep.), 1913-1914
Benson, Frank H. (Rep.), 1915-1916
Flaherty, Lawrence J. (Rep.), 1917-1918
Slater, Herbert W (Dem.), 1919-1926
Fellon, Roy (R-D), 1927-1928, 1931-1932
Merriam, Frank F. (Rep.), 1929-1930
Jespersen, Chris N (R-D), 1933-1934, 1941-1942
Allen, James M. (Dem.), 1937-1938
Hays, Ray W. (Rep.), 1939-1940
Breed, Arthur H., Jr. (R-D), 1943-1944
Biggar, George M. (R-D), 1945-1946
Carter, Oliver J. (Dem.), 1947-1948
Weybret, Fred (R-D), 1949-1950
Dilworth, Nelson S. (R-D), 1951-1958
Cobey, James A. (Dem.), 1959-1960
Richards, Richard D. (Dem.), 1961-1962
Rodda, Albert S. (Dem.), 1963-1965
Mills, James (Dem.), 1967-1968
Deukmejian, George, (Dem.), 1969
Whetmore, James E. 1970
Dymally, Mervyn M. (Dem.), 1971-1974
Rains, Omer L. (Dem.), 1975-1976
Holden, Nate (Dem.), 1977-1978
Keene, Barry (Dem.), 1979-1980
Boatwrite, Daniel E. (Dem.), 1981-1982
Lockyer, Bill, (Dem.), 1983-1984
Carpenter, Paul B. (Dem.), 1985-1986
Marks, Milton, (Dem.), 1987-1994
Polanco, Richard G. (Dem.), 1995-1996
Karnette, Betty (Dem.), 1997-1998
Murray, Kevin (Dem.), 1999-2000
Perata, Don (Dem.), 2001-2004
Bowen, Debra, (Dem.), 2005-2006
The Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee records consist of Bill Files, 1969, 1975-1980,
1982-2006, Hearing Files, 1967-1975, Contested Election Files, 1850-1937, Reapportionment Files, 1967-1975, 1982-2001, Reapportionment
Hearings, 1961, 1971-2001, Reapportionment Court Case Files, 1982-2002, Subject Files, 1962-2004, Correspondence, 1974-2000,
Maps and Data Files, 1965-1967, Demographic and Political Profiles, 1992-1993, Miscellaneous Reports, 1851-1858, 1973-1996,
and News Clippings, 1980-2004. It is anticipated that the Archives will receive further records from the Senate Elections,
Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee. Researchers should check for recently received, unprocessed records
of this committee.
The bill files document the bills directed to the committee. The files include committee analysis, letters from interested
parties, and the comments of affected agencies. These files show the close involvement of the committee in such issues as
campaign finance reform, the Political Reform Act and amendments to the Act, term limits, same day registration and voting,
voting rights for young people and efforts to engage them in the voting process, online public disclosure, and secure electronic
voting. Other issues taken up by the committee included a revision to the Code of Fair Campaign Practices (AB866, 2005) adding
sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of topics a candidate would not use to appeal to negatives prejudices during
a campaign.
The records also include an early series on contested elections. This series spanning 1850-1937 documents the committee's
involvement in examining the election results of contested elections at the senate district level and includes transcripts,
reports and related material.
The hearing files span a variety of elections related topics including voter registration and voter turnout, the Political
Reform Act of 1974, campaign finance reform, efforts to make elections "English only," electronic voting and voting systems
software, the decennial census and redistricting, as well as bill specific hearings.
There is also a second reapportionment specific hearing series, dealing specifically with the various topics, bills, and initiatives
important to the committee's reapportionment work. Also included are hearings to present the proposed redistricting. This
series, as well as the reapportionment series and reapportionment court cases deal exclusively with the decennial census,
reapportionment, and redistricting process. Here researchers will find documentation of the committee's work drafting new
congressional, senate, and assembly districts. The reapportionment court cases document the legal challenges to those proposals
and the committee's response. The researcher should note that the committee collected redistricting hearing files under both
hearing files and reapportionment hearing files and both series should be consulted.
The subject files document the committee's work in areas such as a revision of the Elections Code and the Voting Rights Act,
campaign finance, voter discrimination, electronic filing, litigation (again mostly in relation to the reapportionment and
redistricting process), and the Census and voting demographics, as well as some reapportionment and redistricting material
not found in the Reapportionment series. The correspondence consists of mostly outgoing correspondence from the Committee
chairperson. Topics include current legislation and redistricting efforts, the organization of public hearings, as well as
day to day administrative details of the committee and committee consultants' work. The maps and data series includes maps
and data relating to reapportionment and redistricting, such as census population and demographic data, party registration
and election results at the state assembly and senate district level and at the federal congressional district level. This
series also includes some correspondence and notes.
The demographic and political profiles are a complete series of profiles for each senate district that were produced by the
committee in 1992 and 1993. The miscellaneous reports include mostly reports produced outside the committee on a number of
topics including campaign finance, political reform, and reapportionment. This series also includes a number of reports analyzing
state propositions in each election cycle. The news clippings are a collection of newspaper and magazine articles collected
by the committee on topics relating to the committee's work.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
California. Legislature. Assembly. Committee on Water, Parks, and Wildlife
Apportionment (Election law) -- Law and legislation
Election law -- California
Related Collections at the California State Archives
James A. Coby Papers
Albert S. Rodda Papers
James R. Mills Papers
James E. Whetmore Papers
Barry Keene Papers
Bill Lockyer Papers
Paul Carpenter Papers
Milton Marks Papers
Bill Polanco Papers
Betty Karnette Papers
Kevin Murray Papers
Don Perata Papers
Debra Bowen Papers
Bill Rains, Oral History Interview, 1990. Conducted by Arlene Lazarowitz, Oral History Program, California State University,
Fullerton, for the California State Archives State Government Oral History Program.
Additional records may be found in:
Collection of the California Special Masters on Reapportionment, 1991 at the Institute for Governmental Studies Library, University
of California, Berkeley, Berkeley California, 94720-6000.
Collection of the California Special Masters on Reapportionment, 1973 at the Institute for Governmental Studies Library, University
of California, Berkeley, Berkeley California, 94720-6000.
Researchers interested in historical redistricting and reapportionment data should also consult the Statewide Database http://swdb.berkeley.edu/,
Institute for Governmental Studies, University of California, Berkeley.