Maps for new district lines for electing county supervisors and justice court judges were approved in June by Warren County. Yet, the plan sits idle on a shelf as officials wait for various forms of guidance.

No deadlines are pressing and the 2015 election cycle seems safe, poised to be held under districts to look slightly different than they do now. Fewer people live in Vicksburg and Warren County than 10 years ago, census results showed, and, naturally, the electoral districts must reflect that.

But, sending it off to the Department of Justice didn’t have to take this long. From the get-go, feet have moved painfully slow toward that end.

Late last year, county supervisors relied on preliminary data — mostly verbal — that Warren County’s population was going to slip a bit from 2000. They were right, as the 2010 census released in February showed 48,773 people, down 1.75 percent from 2000. Supervisors were told by Central Mississippi Planning and Development District the numbers were fine and didn’t require a redraw.

During the same time, Vicksburg’s population dipped to 23,856, or 9.7 percent fewer people in 10 years’ time. That meant the two districts that cover the bulk of city residents, Districts 2 and 3, had to be reshaped to equalize the population to ensure minority voting strength wasn’t diluted. Within a week, CMPDD had changed course, which supervisors grudgingly accepted.

Two months of meetings ensued, during which individual chapters of the NAACP went to federal court to sue 10 counties, including Warren, for not delaying the March 1 qualifying deadline to reflect changes in the census numbers. The organization did the same after the 2000 count and shouldn’t have caught anyone by surprise.

It didn’t appear to stop Madison County — one of the defendants — from holding a hearing on redistricting as early as February. There, a map was OK’d on a split vote in March and sent to DOJ. The booming county in the Jackson Metropolitan area got the coveted “preclearance” in May.

Warren County supervisors didn’t set hearing dates until April. The last of three was held May 23.

The case was dismissed and is on appeal, but CMPDD says it eschewed working nights and weekends while Warren, Simpson and Copiah counties slowed down any effort to speed up the process on the local end. Legal descriptions were sent to Warren and Simpson just three weeks ago, and Copiah has yet to OK a plan, according to the planning agency.

Elections were held in Madison County under new lines, and two incumbents who found themselves drawn into districts different from ones for which they’d qualified either dropped out or didn’t campaign.

Meanwhile, in Warren County, supervisors have agreed to switch polling places at three precincts, one twice. Counsel for Warren County says new maps won’t be sent until the precinct situation is more stable.

It may have been contentious in Madison, but give supervisors and other county officials there credit for trying to “stay current.”

Unfortunately, in Warren County, officials have been content to follow rather than lead.