Report calls for changing how NJ draws legislative districts
(NJ State House Tours)
TRENTON, N.J. - A new report is recommending that New Jersey change how it draws its legislative districts.
The "Improving New Jersey's Legislative Apportionment Process" report came out Tuesday. It recommends several changes, including that the state add three independent commissioners to its 10-person commission.
The 26-page report was written by six academics, including the director of Monmouth University's Polling Institute.
Under current law, New Jersey's Democratic and Republican party chairmen each appoint five people to a commission tasked with drawing the state's legislative districts after the decennial Census.
If a consensus isn't reached, then the state Supreme Court chief justice picks an independent commissioner who typically serves as a tiebreaker.
The report calls for the chief justice to instead tap three commissioners, one of whom would chair the commission.