County must alter voting lines after census

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, July 25, 2001

[07/25/01] Warren County will be adjusting voting district lines after census results show more than double the variance in population allowed among districts for supervisor, school trustee, justice court and constable positions.

“Warren County will definitely have to redistrict,” said Chuck Carr of the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District, a Jackson-based agency supported by dues from member cities and counties.

District lines must be redrawn if existing lines create districts with a variance of 10 percent or more than the ideal population for each.

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Census 2000 showed the population in Warren County to be 49,644, making the ideal population for each of five districts 9,929 people.

Districts 1, 4 and 5 are showing too many residents while Districts 2 and 3 are too low. District 2 shows the greatest deviation with 1,515 residents fewer than the ideal.

Balancing district populations is required under the one-man, one-vote principle of the U.S. Constitution. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 applies in Mississippi and 15 other states with histories of racial discrimination. It requires that minority voting strength not be diluted and that all voting-related changes, including new district lines, be approved by federal authorities before being put into force.

Forty percent of Warren County residents are minorities, and two of the five supervisor districts have black voting majorities.

The Board of Supervisors contracted with CMPDD in April to devise a plan to redraw lines. Supervisor and school board seats require carving the county into five parts. For justice court and constable districts, the county is divided into thirds.

“The next step is to go over the preliminary plan with each of the supervisors to be sure there is a firm understanding of the plan and what will be done to individual districts,” said Richard George, District 5 supervisor and board president.

Since incumbents live in the existing districts from which they were elected, care is usually taken to avoid drawing lines that would pit one officeholder against another.

After the plan is completed, it will be presented to the board, and a public hearing will be scheduled. The plan adopted by supervisors will be sent to the U.S. Justice Department, which then has 60 days to object or ask for more time.

The plan must be approved before the qualifying deadline for county elections in 2003. “Time is not much of an issue right now, but we are trying to get ahead of the game,” Carr said. He said it’s also best to devise a plan as soon as possible because census numbers can become less accurate as time passes.

The goal for having the plan completed and approved is December 2002, George said.

“The rough draft of the procedure has us within acceptable deviation range,” George said. “With a little further adjustments, we can do even better.”

There were also errors with the census results that affected population numbers early on, but George said even after the errors were corrected, the change was not enough to avoid redistricting.

The errors involved a mistake in district boundary lines between the first and second districts and the fourth and fifth districts, which made it appear there were more people in one district and fewer in the other, George said.

Nationwide, redistricting takes place following each federal census. A committee of the Mississippi Legislature is working on a plan to divide the state into four parts for U.S. House elections, 52 parts for state Senate seats and 122 parts for state House seats.

Elections that take place according to state or municipal boundaries do not require district lines. Examples would be governors or mayors.