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Lots of Population Growth Creates Uneven Voting Districts for JCCFriday, March 04, 2011 New census data released last month means localities that have grown in population need to revamp voting districts, a process now getting underway in James City County. The fastest-growing locality in Hampton Roads over the past decade now has a total population of 67,009, up from 48,102 in 2000. Because each district needs to have roughly the same amount of people, the county’s districts now need about 13,400 people each.The county released data this week on how much each district’s population needs to increase or decrease in order to reach the target. The Powhatan District, currently represented by Democrat Jim Icenhour, is over that target by 3,719 people. The Republican-controlled Berkeley and Stonehouse districts are also slightly over target, by 882 and 1,514, respectively. The Roberts and Jamestown districts fall below the target population numbers, with Republican Bruce Goodson’s Roberts District down 2,769 and Democrat John McGlennon’s Jamestown District down 3,067. County staff are waiting for supervisors to indicate how they’d like to proceed with the process; they’ll be on a tight time schedule, as the redistricting process needs to be complete in time for election primaries. Those have been pushed back by the governor to give localities more time to redraw their representative boundaries. There are some rules the county needs to follow when redistricting. Districts must be compact and contiguous; they cannot purposely dilute the voting strength of minorities and should preserve communities of interest; they must preserve the shape of existing districts as much as possible; and they should avoid placing two or more incumbents in the same election district. Other rules include making sure the districts are convenient for voters and ensure political fairness. The rules are flexible because they’re vague, which allows for some political maneuvering during redistricting. Supervisors are the ones in charge of the process on a local level. On the state level, the governor established a non-partisan advisory committee to generate suggestions which will be taken under advisement during the process. View a map of the county and its current districts here. |
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Comments
I guess you and your fellow "ditto heads" have been listening to Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck talk about evil liberals so long that you will believe anything he or Beck says. Do you check under your bed for "Liberal Boogiemen" each day? Oooh, those scary, scary liberals must give you nightmares!!
Jeff seems to have the right idea. Let the computer draw the new districts and have party affiliations fall where they may. That way you keep the gerrymandering ideologues from contaminating the electoral process as they usually will if given the chance. Both left and right are guilty of this.
The county has a great GIS system. Let the computer plot out the new districts as best it can and the party affiliations fall where they may.