Decatur Voting District Line Needs to Be Pushed North, “Majority Minority” District No Longer Possible
Decatur Metro | May 16, 2011 | 8:01 amIn preparation for voting this fall, Decatur’s City Manager Peggy Merriss and Meredith Roark sat down with the Local Director of Redistricting at the Legislative and Congressional Reappointment Office last Monday.
Ya see, Decatur needs its voting districts to divide the city as evenly as possible, so that it meets the “one person, one vote” standard. If one district had heap-loads of extra residents, the individual voter in the larger district would represent a smaller % of total potential voters casting their ballot for the district commissioners. (For the uninitiated – Floyd and Boykin reside in Northern District 1 while Cunningham and Garrett call Southern District 2 home. Since Baskett is city-wide, none of this technically matters for his vote)
Well, lo and behold in the last 10 years, Decatur’s become a bit unbalanced according to the 2010 Census.
A letter to the Decatur City Commission from City Manager Merriss for tonight’s meeting notes that the northern district with 10,437 residents is now 1,541 residents larger than the 8,896 person southern district. (One must assume this is due mainly to new condo dwellers downtown) That means the north/south voting line will need to be pushed north to add more voters to the southern district.
Also of note, this paragraph…
The second issue that became apparent was that the south district was no longer a majority minority district and in fact, the immense change in demographics appears to prevent the City from manufacturing any type of district that would meet the “one person, one vote” requirement and still be a majority minority district. Therefore, it is recommended that changes be made within the current district format as opposed to attempting wholesale changes by creating a different district pattern.
No location details for the potential new dividing line were given in the City Manager’s note. Stay tuned.
Does this affect School Board districts too? If so, this is a biggie for CSD.
Good point. I believe the School Board shares the same districts.
Why do you think it’s a biggie for CSD? You mean just as a confirmation? The majority of this population shift probably occurred prior to the last School Board election, so we’ve most likely been through an election with the demographic changes already in place, no?
I can’t predict the effect because it depends on where the lines are drawn. Even with the lines drawn, I probably cannot predict the effect. But there might be one. For example, the lines used to be weird–mostly along the tracks but with the Decatur Housing Authority homes districted to District 2. If they are redistricted to District 1, that could potentially affect overall support for candidates in both Districts. A small number of votes has determined the election in recent races. That’s ok. A little shaking up is good for democracy! Keeps the incumbents and contenders on their toes!