SECOND REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

HOUSE BILL NO. 988

92ND GENERAL ASSEMBLY

                  Reported from the Committee on Elections March 11, 2004, with recommendation that the House Committee Substitute for House Bill No. 988 Do Pass.

                                                                                                                                                                         STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk

2618L.02C

AN ACT

To repeal section 115.607, RSMo, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to county political party committee representation.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

            Section A. Section 115.607, RSMo, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 115.607, to read as follows:

            115.607. 1. No person shall be elected or shall serve as a member of a county committee who is not, for one year next before the person's election, both a registered voter of and a resident of the county and the committee district from which the person is elected if such district shall have been so long established, and if not, then of the district or districts from which the same shall have been taken. Except as provided in subsections 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 of this section, the membership of a county committee of each established political party shall consist of a man and a woman elected from each township or ward in the county.

            2. In each county of the first classification containing the major portion of a city which has over three hundred thousand inhabitants, two members of the committee, a man and a woman, shall be elected from each ward in the city. Any township entirely contained in the city shall have no additional representation on the county committee. The election authority for the county shall, not later than six months after the decennial census has been reported to the President of the United States, divide the most populous township outside the city into eight subdistricts of contiguous and compact territory and as nearly equal in population as practicable. The subdistricts shall be numbered from one upward consecutively, which numbers shall, insofar as practicable, be retained upon reapportionment. Two members of the county committee, a man and a woman, shall be elected from each such subdistrict. Six members of the committee, three men and three women, shall be elected from the second and third most populous townships outside the city. Four members of the committee, two men and two women, shall be elected from [each] the other [township] townships outside the city.

            3. In any city which has over three hundred thousand inhabitants, the major portion of which is located in a county with a charter form of government, for the portion of the city located within such county and notwithstanding section 82.110, RSMo, it shall be the duty of the election authority, not later than six months after the decennial census has been reported to the President of the United States, to divide such cities into not less than twenty-four nor more than twenty-five wards after each decennial census. Wards shall be so divided that the number of inhabitants in any ward shall not exceed any other ward of the city and within the same county, by more than five percent, measured by the number of the inhabitants determined at the preceding decennial census.

            4. In each county of the first classification containing a portion, but not the major portion, of a city which has over three hundred thousand inhabitants, ten members of the committee, five men and five women, shall be elected from the district of each state representative wholly contained in the county in the following manner: Within six months after each legislative reapportionment, the election authority shall divide each legislative district wholly contained in the county into five committee districts of contiguous territory as compact and as nearly equal in population as may be; two members of the committee, a man and a woman, shall be elected from each committee district. The election authority shall divide the area of the county located within legislative districts not wholly contained in the county into similar committee districts; two members of the committee, a man and a woman, shall be elected from each committee district.

            5. In each city not situated in a county, two members of the committee, a man and a woman, shall be elected from each ward.

            6. In all counties with a charter form of government and a population of over nine hundred thousand inhabitants, the county committee persons shall be elected from each township. Within ninety days after August 28, 2002, and within six months after each decennial census has been reported to the President of the United States, the election authority shall divide the county into twenty-eight compact and contiguous townships containing populations as nearly equal in population to each other as is practical.

            7. If any election authority has failed to adopt a reapportionment plan by the deadline set forth in this section, the county commission, sitting as a reapportionment commission, shall within sixty days after the deadline, adopt a reapportionment plan. Changes of township, ward, or precinct lines shall not affect the terms of office of incumbent party committee members elected from districts as constituted at the time of their election.