under the bill -- this is john tanner of tennessee as one of the sponsors -- it would have a minimum of five members. redo independents -- where are they and all this? guest: typically, the way that they work in the states is that major political parties in the last election, the leaders of those two -- it could be independent or green in some states, they get to choose persons to be on the redistricting commission. there's nothing to preclude democrats or republicans from appointing an independent to the commission, but it is usually seen as a process where democrats will. democrats and so on. host: what is your organization's feelings on this legislation? guest: we all pluggapplaud the w makers who have shown leadership on this issue. it is difficult to get income of members of congress to agree that the process by which to get to choose their voters ought to be changed. it is probably the biggest advantage they have. we applaud them for putting this out. we cannot even get a hearing the last time congress meant tanner introduced this bill. we hope that the leadership in the house

conducted a series of oversight hearings, one of which led to the resignation, you may recall, of john tanner then the head of the voting section, whose conduct i won't get into detail but you all remember it. we continue to be very active in monitoring what's happening in the voting section of the civil rights division. there will, i understand, likely to be a vote fairly soon on a new head of the civil rights division. there has clearly been change already in a positive direction. we're hearing from career attorneys in the division that, again, a new day has dawned. they feel they can go forward and take the kinds of actions to protect civil rights that need to be done, and fortunately, because of the supreme court decision today, section five of the voting rights act remains alive and well and we hope will continue to be enforced vigorously, but there is more to do in this area. our report, for example, recommended changes to the manual with respect to election offenses, that we think need to be made to be sure that conduct is taken before elections, and we are very hopeful there will be m