OKLAHOMA CITY – A state Senator from Lawton has been to the Senate’s 13-member reapportionment committee, Senate Pro Tempore Greg Treat said this week.
Senator John Michael Montgomery, a Republican from Lawton, will serve on the reapportionment meeting. The committee has 10 Republican members and three members from the Senate’s Democratic Caucus.
“Alongside drafting a state budget, redistricting will be the highest priority of the Legislature next session. The Oklahoma Senate will conduct an open, transparent, and bipartisan redistricting process,” Treat said in a media statement. “The senators who serve on the redistricting committee have an important task and I appreciate them accepting the challenge to serve on the Senate redistricting committee.”
Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, will be the chairman. Sens. Dave Rader, R-Tulsa, and Michael Brooks, D-Oklahoma City, will serve as co-vice chairs, Treat said.
“Senate Democrats have three of the 13 seats on the committee and have a co-vice chair. That reflects the commitment of the Senate redistricting process to be not only open and transparent but bipartisan in scope,” Paxton said.
The committee will begin its work with a series of town hall-style meetings next week. The first meetings are scheduled for Ada and Chickasha.
The first Senate-hosted meeting will be at 6 p.m. Dec. 8 in Ada at the Seminar Center of the Pontotoc Technology Center. The second Senate meeting will be at 6 p.m. Dec. 10 in Chickasha in the Community Building of the Grady County Fairgrounds. Each meeting will follow the pandemic protection protocols of the hosting facility.
The meetings, legislative leaders said, are part of a joint effort between the Senate and the Oklahoma House of Representatives.
Paxton, the committee chairman, said the meetings help keep the reapportionment process open and also help educate the public about the issue.
“The Oklahoma Senate is committed to an open and transparent redistricting process and our series of town hall meetings across the state will help us inform citizens about redistricting,” Paxton said. “I encourage Oklahomans to participate in this series of meetings.”
He said each meeting will feature an overview presentation about the reapportionment process and will provide an overview of the legislative redistricting process and cover redistricting principles. The public also will have the chance to comment on the redistricting of legislative districts and congressional districts.
The collaboration between the Senate and the House means the public at each meeting can share input on either House or Senate redistricting, Paxton said.
Under the Oklahoma Constitution, state legislative and congressional districts are redrawn once every decade using new census data. Those boundaries are then used for the next decade.
Paxton said the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting will consider redistricting legislation before those bills go to the full Senate for consideration. He said the joint reapportionment meetings will continue for the next several months.
In addition to the in-person public meetings, legislative leaders said the meeting would also be live-streamed whenever possible. Paxton said the ability to live stream is dependent upon the reliability of the internet connection and technical capabilities of the host facility. If the internet connection or technical capabilities of the host facility are not sufficient to live stream, meetings will be recorded and posted as an archived video on the website of the chamber hosting the meeting.
Archived videos of the meetings will be accessible by the public, in the same manner, other archived videos from each chamber are accessible.
Lawmakers said the public can watch Senate and House meeting live streams on the website of the chamber hosting the meeting, in the same manner, other committee meetings and floor sessions are viewed. No password or log-in is necessary to watch meeting live streams.