2010 Redistricting Committee Meeting on June 15, 2012

Redistricting Committee Approves New Map

The 2010 Redistricting Committee, composed of all 17 Commissioners, approved the proposed map submitted by the appointed Staff, as amended by technical amendments also proposed by the Staff, at the June 15 meeting.  The vote was 14 yea – 1 no (Commissioner Collins) – 2 absent (Commissioners Beavers and Schneider).  The next step is for the Board to approve the recommended map at the next Board Meeting on June 19. 

While the proposed ordinance containing the map by reference will be effective immediately, Commissioners will continue to serve their currently drawn districts.  Further, should there be any Board vacancies before the 2014 election, the person appointed will come from the current districts.  For those running in the 2014 primary and November election for a Board position, they will be running to serve the new districts as drawn by this new map. This new map will only be used for the 2014 and 2018 elections.  A new map will be needed for the 2022 election, and will be based on the 2020 census.

The map approved by the Committee has 5 districts with African-American majorities, 3 districts with Hispanic majorities, and 9 districts with Non-Hispanic White majorities.  This represents 1 additional Hispanic majority district and one less Non-Hispanic White majority district, while retaining 5 districts with African-American majorities.  There is up to almost a 10% disparity in the size of the districts, meaning that there are differences in population among the districts of up to about 30,000 people.  This is within the tolerances that Courts have approved according to the consultants to the Committee.  Essentially, the new map started with the existing districts and added and subtracted territory as necessary to comport with the 2010 census, keeping in mind the Voting Rights Act.  Maintaining people in their current district to the extent possible was one of the goals stated by the Committee’s consultant.  But as a result, most of the newly-drawn districts can hardly be said to be “compact.”

Prior to voting on the new map, the Commissioners considered and rejected a proposed amendment submitted by Commissioner Earlean Collins that would have substituted a different map.  The “Collins Protected Class Map 6/12/12” would have increased the majorities in the African-American and Hispanic majority districts, as compared to the approved map.  Further, the districts under this map would have been almost equal in population (less than a 1% deviation).  This proposed map on its face appeared to have more compact districts.  The information provided was not sufficient, however, to determine whether towns and wards or other communities of interest would have been divided more often than under the approved map.    The proposed amendment was defeated with only Commissioner Suffredin joining Commissioner Collins in voting to approve it, and with Commissioner Fritchey voting “present.”

-- submitted by Priscilla Mims