THE SUPREME COURT OF MINNESOTA

 

Contact:

 

 

Valerie Gunderson

 

 

Court Communications Director

 

 

Court Information Office

 

(651) 296-6043

25 Constitution Avenue

 

  Page: (952) 980-4970

Saint Paul, Minnesota  55155

 

valerie.gunderson@courts.state.mn.us

 

MEDIA ADVISORY

 

For Immediate Release

 

ST. PAUL, MN (March 15, 2002) –  Due to high volumes of expected traffic on the state court system website around the time of the Special Redistricting Panel’s intended release of redistricting plans, Tuesday, March 19th at 1:00 p.m., the State Court Information Office is disseminating the following information:

 

1.      If no legislative plan has been enacted by Tuesday, March 19, 2002, the Panel intends to post its plan on the website at 1:00 p.m. under the “redistricting panel” link located on the court system home page, at http://www.courts.state.mn.us.  On the website, the public will be able to retrieve in both Word and PDF formats:

a.      The Panel’s orders regarding redistricting;

b.      Statewide and Twin Cities area congressional district maps;

c.      Statewide and Twin Cities area legislative district maps;

d.      Selected maps of metro areas around Minnesota where it is impossible to discern the legislative districts from the statewide perspective; and

e.      Various Maptitude Reports.

Many of these files will be large and may take some time to download.

 

2.   At 1:00 p.m., electronic copies of the Panel’s full redistricting plans will also be distributed to the Secretary of State’s Office and the Legislative G.I.S. Office.  Members of the public may contact these offices for more information, or may visit the Legislative G.I.S. Office site at http://www.commissions.leg.state.mn.us/gis/html/redis-list.html to utilize interactive software which can produce individual legislative district maps and additional reports.

 

3.   Given the volume of web traffic expected on the state court system website, the State Court Information Office asks for the public’s help in ensuring the site stays functional on March 19th.  “We’re asking for people’s help in avoiding a major web traffic jam,” said Valerie Gunderson, Director of the State Court Information Office.  Those who intend to log in can help keep the site functioning by:

    1. Not logging in hours or days ahead of time;
    2. Not continually hitting “refresh” on the web browser.

 

“Logging in ahead of time won’t help get the information any sooner and may actually prevent us from being able to post the plans on time,” said Gunderson.  “Also, each time a user hits ‘refresh,’ the site momentarily seizes.  If a large number of people are all hitting ‘refresh’ at the same time, the site will freeze up and unfortunately, no one will have access to the information.”

 

In the event the website becomes temporarily disabled, the Court Information Office asks that individual users try logging back on in a few minutes.  In addition, the public will be referred to both the Secretary of State’s Office and the Legislative G.I.S Office as alternatives.  

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