This opinion is subject to correction before publication in the PACIFIC REPORTER. Readers are requested to bring errors to the attention of the Clerk of the Appellate Courts, 303 K Street, Anchorage, Alaska 99501, phone (907) 264-0608, fax (907) 264-0878, email corrections@appellate.courts.state.ak.us.

OPINION

CARPENETI, Chief Justice.

I. INTRODUCTION

Earlier in the current redistricting cycle, we issued an order remanding to the superior court with instructions to remand to the redistricting board to formulate a new plan in compliance with our case law. We agreed with the superior court that, in drafting its plan, the board failed to follow the process we mandated in order to ensure that the redistricting plan would comply with the Alaska Constitution and thus may have unnecessarily violated the Alaska Constitution. Upon remand, the board was instructed to follow this process so that we could appropriately judge whether its violations of the Alaska Constitution were absolutely necessary for compliance with federal law. The board then submitted a modified plan to the superior court that changed only four out of forty house districts from the original plan; this amended plan was similarly rejected by the superior court because, among other reasons, the board failed to follow the process that we required in order to ensure compliance with the Alaska Constitution. The board petitions for review of the superior court's decision. We accept the petition for review and, because the board failed to follow the process that we ordered upon remand, we affirm the decision of the superior court and require the board to draft a new plan for the 2014 elections. We agree with the board that it is not required to make specific findings about each individual district relating to the requirements of the Alaska Constitution nor to submit a plan to the superior court at each stage of drafting.

II. FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Article VI, section 3 of the Alaska Constitution requires reapportionment of the Alaska Legislature every ten years. Under article VI, section 10 of the Alaska Constitution, the Alaska Redistricting Board (the Board) must adopt one or more proposed redistricting plans within 30 days after receiving official census data from the federal government. The Board must then hold public hearings on the proposed plans and adopt a final plan within 90 days of the census reporting. Because Alaska is covered by section 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act (VRA),1 the Board must also submit its final plan to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) for preclearance to ensure that any voting changes do not diminish minorities' ability to "elect their preferred candidates of choice."2

Following the 2010 census, the Board received the official census data on March 13, 2011. On April 8, 2011, the Board hired Dr. Lisa Handley, a VRA expert. Dr. Handley strongly recommended that the Board begin its redistricting process by focusing on creating effective Native districts,3 given the difficulties posed by VRA compliance in Alaska. On June 13, 2011, the Board formally adopted its final Proclamation Plan. This plan received preclearance from the DOJ on October 11, 2011.

Three separate lawsuits were initially filed in superior court challenging the Board's final plan by four plaintiffs: the Fairbanks North Star Borough (FNSB), the City of Petersburg, and George Riley and Ronald Dearborn, residents of Ester and the Goldstream Valley (collectively Riley). These cases were later consolidated. The FNSB then moved to dismiss its action, which the court granted with the proviso that the Riley plaintiffs could pursue the FNSB claims. The City of Petersburg also dropped out of the suit after the superior court granted summary judgment to the Board on the issue that Petersburg had raised; Petersburg did not ask for reconsideration from the superior court or file a petition for our review. Before trial, the superior court denied Riley's claim challenging the process used by the Board to formulate its proclamation plan, and on February 3, 2012, the superior court issued its opinion denying Riley's claims alleging unconstitutional vote dilution. In its opinion, however, the superior court also concluded that Proclamation House Districts 1, 2, 37, and 38 unnecessarily deviated from the requirements of the Alaska Constitution.

Both the Board and Riley filed petitions for review. Several entities also filed amicus briefs, including the FNSB, the Aleutians East Borough, Calista Corporation, and a coalition of several Alaska Native groups. On March 14, 2012, we issued an order holding that the Board's Proclamation Plan did not comply with the process mandated in Hickel v. Southeast Conference4 (the Hickel process), and we remanded the case accordingly.5

In our order, we gave the Board explicit instructions and specified a process that

After setting forth the correct process for the Board to follow in order to comply with the Alaska Constitution, we concluded that it was "undisputed that the Board began redistricting in March and April of 2011 by focusing on complying with the Voting Rights Act, thereby ignoring the process we mandated."7 Thus, we found the Board erred by reversing steps one and two of the Hickel process.

Additionally, we explained why failure to follow the Hickel process was fatal to the Board's plan: The failure prevented meaningful judicial review because we could not discern whether the Board's deviations from Alaska constitutional requirements were actually necessary. We stated:

The Board was left with clear instructions to fulfill its constitutional mandate and we further elaborated on the importance of the Hickel process in redistricting:

Thus, we held the Board erred by using its own method and ignoring Hickel. For the sake of absolute clarity, we also rearticulated the Board's duties and our own role in the admittedly difficult process of redistricting:

In our order, we explicitly stated that reasons of difficulty or expediency do not justify deviating from the requirements of the Alaska Constitution. Consequently, the Board was ordered to follow the Hickel process upon remand.11 We also acknowledged that time constraints may have complicated compliance with our order, and we approved the use of an interim plan if necessary:

Thus, we notified the Board that we would not approve any final plan unless it was drafted according to the Hickel process.

The Board met from March 26 to March 31 to develop a new plan based on our order. The Board worked from what it termed a "Hickel template" that kept the unchallenged districts from its original Proclamation Plan because the Board claimed those districts "were drawn with only the Alaska Constitution in mind" and thus they complied with the Hickel process.13 The Board's template omitted regions from the original Proclamation Plan that had been challenged, including House Districts 1-5 (Fairbanks City and FNSB); 36 (Bristol Bay and Aleutians East Borough); 37 (Bethel and Aleutians West Borough); 38 (Wade Hampton and Denali); and 39 (Bering Straits and Interior Villages). After developing the template, the Board created four plans using that template and reviewed each for compliance with the Alaska Constitution. The Board adopted one of these plans, finding that each house district within was "contiguous, relatively compact and . . . socio-economically integrated." While the Board undertook this process and discussed its chosen plan with its VRA expert, third-party organizations submitted five alternative plans. The Board discussed each of these third-party plans and rejected them; it then adopted an amended version of its chosen plan. Eventually, the Board's modified plan became the Amended Proclamation Plan, and the Board unanimously adopted its written findings in support of this plan on April 5, 2012. This plan was then submitted to the superior court for approval as a final redistricting plan.

On April 16, 2012, seven parties and amici filed objections to the Board's Amended Proclamation Plan; among other deficiencies, each objector argued the Board ignored the Hickel process by maintaining the original Proclamation Plan's unchallenged districts when creating its template instead of beginning with a clean slate. In response to this objection, the Board argued that it was "under no obligation to redraw every House district, especially ones that already complied" with the Alaska Constitution. On April 20, 2012, the superior court issued an order denying the Board's request for approval of the Amended Proclamation Plan; among other issues, the superior court found that the Amended Proclamation Plan violated Hickel because the Board assumed that its unchallenged districts were constitutional, and it failed to redraw Southeast Alaska even though these districts were created to comply with the Board's assumption that it had to maintain a Native influence district.14 The superior court declared:

The superior court also concluded that the Board first had to submit a plan to the court that complied with the Alaska Constitution without regard for the VRA, and only after the superior court evaluated and approved this Hickel plan would it then be remanded to the Board to make modifications necessary for VRA compliance.

The Board asked us to review the superior court's decision, but due to pending election deadlines, it also asked us to approve an interim plan for the 2012 elections. Extensive litigation ensued regarding the Board's interim plan, and we ultimately issued two orders adopting the Board's Amended Proclamation Plan as the interim plan.

Our order approving this interim plan once again reiterated that the Board would have to follow the Hickel process before we would approve a final plan:

We now address the Board's petition for review from the superior court's order rejecting the Amended Proclamation Plan as a final redistricting plan.

III. STANDARD OF REVIEW

Under article VI, section 11 of the Alaska Constitution, the superior court has original jurisdiction over lawsuits to "compel correction of any error in redistricting" and, on appeal, "the cause shall be reviewed by the supreme court on the law and the facts."15 We review redistricting plans "in the same light as we would a regulation adopted under a delegation of authority from the legislature to an administrative agency to formulate policy and promulgate regulations."16 We review the plan to ensure that the Board did not exceed its delegated authority and to determine if the plan is "reasonable and not arbitrary."17 We may not substitute our judgment as to the sagacity of a redistricting plan for that of the Board, as the wisdom of the plan is not a subject for review.18 Our review is meant to ensure that the Board's Proclamation Plan is not unreasonable and is constitutional under article VI, section 6 of the Alaska Constitution.19

IV. DISCUSSION

A. The Board Did Not Comply With The Hickel Process When Formulating Its Amended Proclamation Plan.

The Board claims that it has followed our instructions to use the Hickel process upon remand and asks us to approve its Amended Proclamation Plan as the final redistricting plan. But it is undisputed that the Board began formulating its original proclamation plan by focusing exclusively on race and creating the correct number of effective Native districts. Thus, upon remand, the Board was instructed to consider the requirements of the Alaska Constitution first when constructing districts.20 However, what the Board actually did upon remand was to create a Hickel template that maintained the boundaries of unchallenged districts from the original Proclamation Plan, resulting in 36 unchanged house districts. The Board asserts that these districts "were drawn with only the Alaska Constitution in mind" and thus they complied with the Hickel process.21

The superior court interpreted our March 14, 2012 order as an instruction to the Board to begin its drafting process anew. The superior court found that "[i]nstead of redrawing a new plan that focused on the Alaska Constitution, there is no dispute that the Board used most of the districts from the [original] Proclamation Plan" and that this "method did not comply with either the spirit or the letter of the Alaska Supreme Court's order and the Hickel process."

We agree with the superior court that Hickel and our order mandated that the initial map drawn by the Board should not be affected by VRA considerations in any way, and therefore, the Board's Amended Proclamation Plan was noncompliant. We have already held that the Board began drawing its original Proclamation Plan by creating VRA-compliant districts, a process that necessarily affected the contours of the entire map.22 By adopting districts affected by the Board's initial VRA considerations, the Board's Hickel template limited its available options. As the amici usefully put it, on remand the Board "painted itself into a corner" by leaving only a few blank areas on the map. This structure limited the Board's ability to consider a wide range of plans to achieve maximum constitutional compliance; notably, each of the Board's four Hickel options was aimed at addressing the same population shortfall issue in a single rural district.

Moreover, when the Board first created these 36 districts, it did so in order to comply with the VRA; this is a clear violation of Hickel's plain language. Although these districts went unchallenged, that does not change the fact that they were drawn with VRA considerations as the first priority. We do not know if these districts will meet the Alaska Constitution's requirements of compactness, contiguity, and socio-economic integration, but they were not drawn with this purpose as the primary consideration. Without a plan that does so, it is impossible to measure if deviations from Alaska constitutional requirements were necessary. Consequently, there is nothing to show that if the Board had considered the Alaska constitutional requirements first, as instructed, these districts would have remained the same. The Board's failure to follow the Hickel process has therefore precluded meaningful judicial review.

B. The Board Does Not Need To Make Specific Findings About Each Individual District Relating To The Requirements Of The Alaska Constitution.

The Board challenged the superior court's ruling that required the Board to make specific findings regarding each individual house district. The superior court seemed to derive its conclusion from the following passage of our March 14 order: "[T]hese difficulties do not limit the Board's responsibility to create a constitutionally compliant redistricting plan, nor do they `absolve this court of its duty to independently measure each district against constitutional standards.'"23 Based on this language, the superior court reasoned that the Board was required to submit district-specific findings so that we could measure the constitutionality of each district. The Board argues that this ruling is the "epitome of form over substance, and creates a mandate obviously absent from [our] order." The Board also highlighted its express finding that all 40 house districts in the Amended Proclamation Plan were constitutionally compliant.

There is no indication in the 2001 Redistricting order or in our March 14 order that our duty to measure each district for constitutional compliance creates a corresponding requirement that the Board make individual findings regarding each district's constitutionality. In our March 14 order we "recommend(ed) that the Board make findings, in furtherance of the Hickel process, that the initially designed plan complies with the requirements of the Alaska Constitution . . . ."24 Our recommendation did not extend to findings about each district. The Board is not required to specifically find that each district in its Hickel plan complies with the Alaska Constitution.

C. The Board Need Not Submit A Plan To The Superior Court At Each Stage Of Drafting.

The Board also challenged the superior court's ruling that it must submit a Hickel plan to that court for approval before creating a final plan. The superior court stated in its April 20, 2012 order that it must "receive a plan from the Board that complies with the Alaska Constitution before considering any need to meet any VRA requirements." Once the superior court approved the plan, "the matter will be remanded again to the Board" to develop a plan that deviates from the requirements of the Alaska Constitution only when necessary for VRA compliance. The Board argues that this ruling has no support in the detailed mandates of the Alaska Constitution and our prior case law. It also contends that the superior court created "a completely new, unprecedented level of court involvement in the redistricting process" without establishing "just how and when this review is supposed to occur in future redistricting cycles."

Neither Hickel nor the March 14 order expressly or impliedly requires the Board to submit its Hickel plan for superior court ratification before proceeding to weigh VRA compliance. Article VI, sections 10 and 11 of the Alaska Constitution delineate the process the Board must follow in developing a proclamation plan and the contours of judicial review, and nowhere do these provisions suggest a two-stage review is required. Therefore, we hold that the Board is not required to submit its initial Hickel plan to the superior court for ratification.

D. All Other Claims Raised In This Petition for Review Are Moot.

The Board also challenged the superior court's rulings that the configuration of certain house districts that deviated from the requirements of the Alaska Constitution were not necessary for compliance with the VRA. Since we find the Board did not comply with the Hickel process in formulating its plan, we need not reach these claims as these districts may have a completely different configuration in the new plan the Board will have to create, and therefore, these claims are moot.

V. CONCLUSION

Because the Board failed to follow the Hickel process when drafting its Amended Proclamation Plan, we AFFIRM the superior court's ruling invalidating that plan and REMAND this case to the Board to draft a new plan based on strict adherence to the Hickel process. We REVERSE the superior court's rulings that the Board must make specific findings on the constitutionality of each house district and that the Board must submit the plan to the court for approval at each stage of drafting.

WINFREE, Justice, with whom STOWERS, Justice, joins, dissenting in part.

I agree that the Alaska Redistricting Board did not follow the instructions set out in our March 14, 2012, order and therefore agree to affirm that point of Judge McConahy's remand order. It appears the Board considered our order to be form over substance and reformulated its packaging rather than its plan.

I also agree that, at this juncture, it was error for the superior court to require the Board to submit an initial plan, based solely on the Alaska Constitution, for court approval before making any necessary adjustments to satisfy federal voting law requirements. I therefore agree to reverse that point of Judge McConahy's remand order. But I note that the Board's further failure to comply with the Hickel process1 might justify such a requirement.

I disagree with the conclusion that the Board should not, at this juncture, be required to make specific district-by-district findings regarding the three factors constitutionally mandated for a redistricting plan: contiguity, compactness, and relative socio-economic integration.2 Having twice failed to follow the Hickel process, the Board should be required to make findings allowing appropriate judicial review of its determinations. I therefore would affirm this point of Judge McConahy's remand order. But I make the following observations in this regard. First, conclusory "findings" on the three factors underlying a constitutional redistricting plan are not particularly helpful, especially with regard to comparative socio-economic integration.3 Second, whether a redistricting plan ultimately complies with the Alaska Constitution is not a question of fact; it is a question of law subject to independent review by the judiciary — I would give no deference to a Board "finding" that its redistricting plan complies with the Alaska Constitution when our role is to "review [a] redistricting plan[] `de novo upon the record developed in the superior court'"4 to ensure that the plan "is not unreasonable and is constitutional under the provisions of Article VI, section 6 of Alaska's constitution."5

MATTHEWS, Senior Justice, with whom FABE, Justice, joins, dissenting.

The main question under review is whether the Alaska Redistricting Board complied with our order concerning the Hickel process when it used unchallenged districts or whether the Board should have begun the redistricting process anew. Today's opinion concludes that a fresh start was required. I disagree and believe that the Board's approach was practical and reasonable.

A. Actions Taken By The Board On Remand

The underlying problem facing the Redistricting Board was the difficulty of complying with both the federal Voting Rights Act and the redistricting criteria set out in article VI, section 6 of the Alaska Constitution. The purpose of the Voting Rights Act is to protect the voting power of racial minorities. A reapportionment plan is invalid under section 5 of the Act if it leads to "retrogression" in the relative position of racial minorities with respect to their effective exercise of the electoral franchise.1 The redistricting criteria of article VI, section 6 of the Alaska Constitution require that each house district "shall be formed of contiguous and compact territory" that contains "as nearly as practicable a relatively integrated socio-economic area."2 Because the federal Act has priority, sometimes the Alaska redistricting criteria must be compromised in order to avoid retrogression.

To ensure that the Redistricting Board does not unnecessarily deviate from Alaska constitutional standards in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act we directed the Board in Hickel v. Southeast Conference to follow the procedure that now bears the name of that case. We stated in Hickel:

The Redistricting Board in the present case did not follow the Hickel process in formulating the original Proclamation Plan.4 This failure was challenged by Riley in his petition for review from the superior court's initial decision on the merits. In our order of March 14, 2012 we agreed with Riley that the Board had erred in failing to comply with the Hickel process.

We explained:

We remanded this case to the Board to comply with the Hickel process.

On remand, the Board reconvened on March 26 and met continuously for six days. After considering four options, the Board settled on a Hickel plan, that is, a plan designed to comply with Alaska constitutional criteria.6 The Board then conducted an analysis to determine whether the plan would be considered retrogressive under the Voting Rights Act. The Board determined that its Hickel plan would be considered retrogressive and would not be granted preclearance by the Department of Justice. The Board then examined various options for changing the Hickel plan in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act. After deliberating on many options and plans submitted by numerous interest groups, the Board adopted the Amended Proclamation Plan on April 5, 2012.7

The Board described in a written report the process it used to adopt the Hickel plan. The Board first asked its staff to design several Hickel plans for its consideration. As a basis for drafting the various options, the staff was instructed to create what the Board called the "Hickel template." The template consisted of election districts from the original Proclamation Plan that were designed to comply with Alaska redistricting criteria independent of Voting Rights Act considerations.8

The Hickel template left space for four undrawn districts in rural Alaska. These districts encompassed a very large area, more than half the state geographically, and they became Districts 36, 37, 38, and 39 under the Board-adopted Hickel plan. Because these four undrawn districts only had sufficient population for about 3.5 House districts, substantial population needed to be added from an urban area of the state to at least one of the rural districts. In order to decide what to adopt as its Hickel plan, the Board considered four provisional plans created by its staff that took population respectively from the urban areas of Fairbanks, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Anchorage, and the Kenai Peninsula Borough. The three latter plans crossed the template boundaries in various ways. After considerable deliberation, the Board settled on the option that took population from suburban Fairbanks and adopted the Hickel plan.9 One advantage of resolving the rural population shortfall by taking population from the Fairbanks North Star Borough was that this area had excess population equivalent to about one-half a district that had to be accommodated in some way.

Set forth here are the Board's findings concerning adoption of the Hickel plan:

5. On March 26, 2012, the Board reviewed, considered and discussed on the record three Hickel Plans created by Board staff referred to as "Hickel 001," "Hickel 002" and "Hickel 003." These plans solved the rural population shortfall by taking population out of Fairbanks, Mat-Su, and Anchorage, respectively. Another plan, "Hickel 004", which took urban population from Kenai, was presented to the Board on March 27, 2012. Copies of all four Hickel Plans were posted on the Board's website and are part of the Board record.

6. After discussion, the Board instructed its counsel to review the proposed Hickel Plans for compliance with the Alaska Constitution.

7. On March 27, 2012, counsel for the Board provided the Board with a written memorandum setting forth his analysis of the four proposed Hickel Plans. A copy of this memorandum was posted on the Board's website and is part of the Board record. Board counsel also explained his analysis on the record and answered questions from Board members. a. Board counsel's analysis determined that the Hickel 001 plan complied with the requirements of art. VI, sec. 6 of the Alaska Constitution.

The Board next turned to the question of whether the Hickel plan it adopted complied with the Voting Rights Act. Dr. Lisa Handley, the Board's expert consultant, studied the Hickel plan and came to the conclusion that it was retrogressive and would not be approved by the Department of Justice. Dr. Handley explained that the original Proclamation Plan10 had five "effective" (or "ability to elect") Alaska Native state House districts: Districts 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40. All of these districts were majority Native population districts, but two of them, 37 and 38, had only approximately 46% Alaska Native voting age population (NVAP).11 Dr. Handley also explained that the original Proclamation Plan contained three effective Senate districts: two majority Alaska Native Senate districts, Districts T and S, and Senate District R with a 43.75% NVAP.12 But, because the Hickel plan contained one fewer effective House district and one fewer effective Senate district, changes had to be made in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act and obtain preclearance from the Department of Justice.

How the Hickel plan should be changed to comply with the Voting Rights Act was much discussed by the Redistricting Board. The Board eventually decided that three of the districts in the Hickel plan, 37, 38, and 39, would have to be altered in order to create a fifth effective House district. Because Districts 38 and 39 had NVAPs of over 80%, and District 37 had an NVAP of only approximately 33%,13 the reconfiguration would have to place many Alaska Native voters from Districts 38 and 39 into District 37, which in turn would be altered to place some non-Native voters into Districts 38 and 39.

The Board's report states the problem as follows:

Looking at the maps of the Hickel plan and the Amended Proclamation Plan, one can see that the "unpacking" process primarily entailed three steps. First, the Board combined the heavily NVAP Norton Sound and middle Yukon River areas with a region of rural eastern Alaska where Alaska Natives are not a majority to form District 39 in the Amended Proclamation Plan.14 Second, the Yukon River Delta (the Wade Hampton census district) with its heavy NVAP (which was the southern part of District 39 under the Hickel plan) was extended east to encompass the primarily non-Native Denali Borough and the suburban Fairbanks areas of Ester and the Goldstream Valley to create House District 38 in the Amended Proclamation Plan.15 Third, the remainder of District 38 in the Hickel plan was distributed to Districts 36 and 37 in the Amended Proclamation Plan.16

The creation of a third effective Senate district also required changes to what were Districts 36 and 38 in the Hickel plan. The Board adopted the so-called Bethel-to-Chain Plan (referring to the Aleutian Chain) which placed the City of Bethel in the same district with the Aleutians by creating a long coastal district, District 37, in the Amended Proclamation Plan.17 The balance of the Bethel census area was packed into a district that includes areas of Southwest Alaska from Tyonek on Cook Inlet to King Salmon on the Alaska Peninsula. This newly configured district, District 36, had an NVAP of 81.01%. This high NVAP allowed District 36 to be paired with District 35, the Kodiak and Central Coast district that had an NVAP of 17.55%, to create Senate District R with an NVAP of 47.76%.18 According to Dr. Handley, the NVAP of Senate District R was then sufficient to create an effective Senate district.

After clearing the proposed changes with Dr. Handley, the Board adopted the Amended Proclamation Plan.19 The Board found that the Amended Proclamation Plan departed from the Alaska constitutional requirements of article VI, section 6 "to the least degree reasonably necessary to ensure compliance with the [Voting Rights Act]." After making additional findings concerning the configuration of election districts in southeast Alaska, which I will discuss separately, the Board adopted the Amended Proclamation Plan by a unanimous 5-0 vote.

B. Subsequent Proceedings In The Superior Court

The City of Petersburg and the Riley plaintiffs immediately challenged the Amended Proclamation Plan in the superior court.20 The City of Petersburg argued that the Board did not comply with the Hickel process with respect to House Districts 34 and 32 in southeastern Alaska because House District 34 in the original Proclamation Plan was designed to create a Native "influence" district and this design adversely affected the compactness of neighboring District 32 in which Petersburg is located. Since these districts were the same under both the original and amended Proclamation Plans and were not based solely on the requirements of the Alaska Constitution, Petersburg argued that the Redistricting Board had failed to comply with our order on remand requiring adherence to the Hickel process. As I discuss below, I think Petersburg's point is correct and this case should be remanded for the limited purpose of reconfiguring House Districts 32 and 34, as well as the other two districts in southeast Alaska, 31 and 33, if required because of a ripple effect.21

Riley raised a number of objections including an argument that the Board did not follow the Hickel process because it started with a plan that left 36 of the initial districts intact. Riley wrote:

The Board defended its decision to use most of the already-drawn districts on the grounds that they had been designed to comply with the Alaska constitutional criteria without consideration of Voting Rights Acts requirements. In addition, the Board argued that since the districts in the Hickel template had never been challenged, no new challenge would be timely since the 30-day deadline prescribed by article VI, section 11 of the Alaska Constitution had expired.22

The superior court ruled that the parties' objections that the Hickel process was not followed were well taken:

4 The Board also made adjustments to the districts in Kenai and Mat-Su due to population shift.

The Board has petitioned for review of this decision.

C. The Board Complied With Our Order Concerning The Hickel Process, Except For Southeast Alaska.23

Today's majority opinion affirms the superior court to the extent that the court concluded that the Board failed to follow the Hickel process by using the unchallenged districts from the Proclamation Plan. The majority opinion's rationale is that the shape of the unchallenged districts was necessarily affected by the Board's initial decision to draft the original Proclamation Plan by addressing Voting Rights Act considerations first and therefore the "Hickel template limited its available options."24 The majority states that by adopting the Hickel template "the Board `painted itself into a corner' by leaving only a few blank areas on the map. This structure limited the Board's ability to consider a wide range of plans to achieve maximum constitutional compliance; notably, each of the Board's four Hickel options was aimed at addressing the same population shortfall issue in a single rural district."25 This rationale leads the majority to conclude that the Board did not comply with the Hickel process when it maintained the original Proclamation Plan's unchallenged districts, and that the Board should have begun with a clean slate.

To explain why I reach a different conclusion, I begin with the language of our order of March 14, 2012. In paragraph 11 of the order we directed the Board on remand to "follow the Hickel process."26 In paragraph 5 of the order we described the Hickel process as mandating that the Board first "design a reapportionment plan based on the requirements of the Alaska Constitution."27 Thus, to belabor the obvious, what we required the Board to do was "design a reapportionment plan based on the requirements of the Alaska Constitution." If the Hickel plan complied with the requirements of the Alaska Constitution, the Board did what we asked it to do. Today's opinion declines to answer whether the Board's Hickel plan meets Alaska constitutional criteria.28 I agree that this is a question that remains to be resolved.29

The premise of the majority's opinion is that the Board unduly limited its ability to craft a Hickel plan by starting with the Hickel template. Today's opinion refers to the Board's actions as "leaving only a few blank areas on the map."30 But reference to the Hickel template, Appendix D, immediately calls into question the characterization of the undistricted space as "a few blank areas." The template left blank a huge contiguous area that constitutes more than half the land mass of the State of Alaska. Within this Texas-sized area the Board obviously had numerous redistricting options.

Further, the Board was not constrained by the Hickel template. The Board considered three alternatives to its Hickel plan, each of which ignored the template boundaries in different ways. For example, in what the Board called the "Hickel 003 Plan" the Board considered taking the needed urban population from the western portion of the Municipality of Anchorage and including it in a district with rural villages that stretched from Cook Inlet to Bethel in western Alaska. The other two options likewise were not constrained by the template boundaries. The so-called Hickel 002 Plan added population from the Matanuska-Susitna Borough — including Talkeetna and Willow — to a large interior district. Hickel 004 added population from the northern portion of the Kenai Peninsula (the Nikiski area) to a district that ran from the western shore of Cook Inlet to the mouth of the Kuskokwim River.31

Thus, the Hickel template, the structure chosen by the Board, did not limit the Board's ability to consider alternative plans. We can say this with confidence because the Board in fact considered alternative plans that were not constrained by the template.

In addition, there are practical reasons that support the Board's decision to use unchallenged districts when it constructed its Hickel plan rather than to start from scratch.

First, beginning the Hickel process with unchallenged districts was desirable because the Amended Proclamation Plan, so based, could be in place in time for the 2012 elections and could be used for all of the subsequent elections in the decennial cycle. This would have been an impossibility if the Board had started with newly drawn districts because new districts would have created new controversies with new parties, just as every new redistricting has done. By contrast, new challenges to the districts built into the Hickel template were already barred by the 30-day period of limitations expressed in article VI, section 11 of the Alaska Constitution.

Second, the unchallenged districts had already been reviewed through the public hearing process required by article VI, section 10 of the Alaska Constitution. Starting anew would have negated the value of these hearings, and might have required new hearings.

Underlying these reasons is the fact that it is highly desirable that election districts not change, or change as little as possible, from one election to the next during every ten-year census cycle. Redistricting inevitably generates significant political disruption and voter confusion, and gives rise to charges of partisan and ad hominem gerrymandering. It results in the truncation of four-year senate terms to two-year terms when there are substantial changes in a Senate district. Further, redistricting may place two incumbents in one district, thus resulting in the inevitable defeat of one of them. In addition, redistricting may cause incumbents to lose the core of their constituency.

In recognition of the undesirable effects of unnecessary redistricting, the Alaska Constitution contains provisions designed to ensure that one redistricting plan will be effective for the whole of a census cycle. The tight deadlines in article VI, section 1032 are designed to achieve this goal. They require the adoption of a preliminary plan within 30 days after the Board has been appointed or the census has been reported, whichever is later, and a final plan within 90 days thereafter. The plan is to be effective for the next ten years. It "shall be effective . . . until after the official reporting of the next decennial census of the United States."33 Similarly, the strict deadlines of article VI, section 1134 likewise are designed to produce a final plan that will serve for the entire census cycle. Thus, under section 11, suits challenging a plan must be filed no later than 30 days following the adoption of the plan. Further, all decisions by the superior court and the supreme court concerning such challenges "shall be expedited and shall have priority over all other matters pending before the respective court."35

For the above reasons, I think that the majority opinion is mistaken in concluding that the Board unduly limited its range of choices by adopting the Hickel template.36 The Board considered options outside the template.37 Further, the Board's decision to use as many unchallenged districts as possible in its Hickel plan was reasonable and practical because that was the only course of action that could have resulted in a plan that could be employed for every election in this census cycle.

D. With Respect To Districts 32 And 34 In Southeast Alaska The Board Did Not Comply With Our Order Concerning The Hickel Process.

I agree with the majority opinion that, as to House Districts 32 and 34 in southeast Alaska, the Board did not comply with the Hickel process.38 As the majority opinion states, these districts were drawn under the assumption that a Native "influence" district had to be maintained in southeast Alaska in order to comply with the Voting Rights Act.

On remand from our order of March 14, 2012, the Board took the position that it did not have to revisit the configuration of the districts in southeast Alaska. This was based on a ruling made by the superior court in response to the City of Petersburg's motion for summary judgment in which the superior court held that District 32 is "compact enough" to satisfy the requirements of the Alaska Constitution. But as the superior court later pointed out, in its order of April 20, 2012, this conclusion was only reached in light of the court's assumption that the Voting Rights Act required a Native influence district in southeast Alaska. The superior court stated:

In our order of May 10, 2012, we ordered that the Amended Proclamation Plan be adopted as an interim plan to govern the 2012 elections except for the districts in southeast Alaska. As to the southeast Alaska districts, we recognized that the Board had not followed our order of March 14, 2012 concerning the Hickel process and concluded that there was no Voting Rights Act justification for deviating from Alaska constitutional criteria. We therefore required the Board to reformulate the southeast districts within five days. Our May 10 order stated in relevant part:

The Redistricting Board dutifully complied with our order of May 10. It worked over a weekend and approved a new plan for southeast Alaska that it submitted to this court on May 15, 2012.41

After inviting and considering comments on the Board's new configuration of southeast Alaska, we decided to accept the Amended Proclamation Plan of April 5, 2012 with respect to southeast Alaska for the 2012 elections rather than the reformulated plan submitted on May 15. Our order explained the reasons for this decision:

We also stated:

It seems clear that District 34 in the Amended Proclamation Plan was not reasonably compact and that the Board drew its boundaries so that it would be a Native "influence" district under the Voting Rights Act. Further, the configuration of District 34 also affected the shape of District 32 and possibly District 33.44 The Redistricting Board was mistaken in relying on the superior court's "compact enough" language from the court's order of December 12, 2011 and therefore did not comply with the Hickel process.

While this conclusion likely will result in three of the four districts in southeast Alaska being redrawn and this will potentially result in some of the undesirable effects that result from multiple redistricting in a single census cycle, the effects are limited to, at most, four districts. Further, the Board has already reformulated the southeast districts, so compliance by the Board need not entail much additional effort by that agency.45

E. Conclusion

Today's opinion sends the redistricting process mandated as a result of the 2010 census back to ground zero. Much new litigation, by new parties as well as those already before us, will result. All the disruptions of redistricting that are necessarily endured every ten years will be repeated in the next two.

The cause of this drastic remedy, according to the majority opinion, is the Board's use of unchallenged districts in devising a Hickel plan. But the Board did not consider that its hands were tied by the unchallenged districts, and there were practical reasons why the Board would choose to build on rather than toss out the unchallenged work that it had already done. Rather than force a return to the point of beginning, I think we should take the next logical step in this litigation and determine whether the Board's Hickel plan was based on the requirements of the Alaska Constitution.