State House to consider legislative redistricting plan fair to everyone

TOMMY REYNOLDS

JACKSON (Thursday, March 3, 2011) – A plan lawmakers will consider to redraw state House districts accurately reflects population shifts, protects the rights of minority voters statewide, protects communities of interest, and is fair to everyone.

The proposal, which would redraw all 122 state House districts, cleared the Joint Legislative Committee on Legislative Reapportionment and the House Legislative Reapportionment Committee today. The full House is expected to consider the proposal on Friday.

“This is a fair redistricting plan that uses the latest Census data to adequately reflect population changes over the past 10 years,” said state Rep. Tommy Reynolds, who co-chairs the Joint Legislative Committee on Legislative Reapportionment and chairs the House Legislative Reapportionment Committee.

“This plan does everything: It meets the requirements of the Voting Rights Act of 1965; it follows all relevant court decisions, and it protects communities of interest such as cities and counties.”

“Most important,” said Reynolds, “it shows that we can write a fair plan that will allow for regularly scheduled elections to be held later this year without the cost of needless and expensive litigation.”

The House vote will culminate months of work by Reynolds, his committee and his committee staff – work that began with 12 public hearings across the state in August and September 2010. After the committee received final Census data this month, four more hearings took place on Feb. 11 and 12.

At both sets of hearings, Reynolds and other committee members listened to Mississippians share their concerns and thoughts about redistricting. The committee used the public input while completing the final proposal to redraw House districts.

Legislators redraw their districts every 10 years, using U.S. Census data to modify and update House district lines to reflect population changes and shifts that have occurred since the last official Census was taken. Depending on the data, some areas of the state can gain or lose House seats.

For example, DeSoto County – which saw its population jump from 107,199 in 2000 to 161,253 in 2010 – would gain two new House seats.

Besides that, several cities in Mississippi would have their own House seats – some, like Madison just north of Jackson, for the first time. The number of counties with their own House seat would double from five to 10, including Yalobusha, Calhoun, Sharkey and Issaquena counties.

Because Mississippi’s population jumped 4.3 percent since the 2000 Census, the size of the ideal state House district also increased from 23,317 to 24,322 people. While it is almost impossible to draw House districts with exactly 24,322 residents, the districts in the proposed plan are within acceptable ranges.

Reynolds said the House redistricting plan also would significantly reduce split voting precincts in which one precinct is served by more than one House district. The number split precincts would drop from 449 today to 189 under the proposed House plan.

“This is a monumental improvement and will lead to much less confusion at the polls for voters and poll workers,” Reynolds said. “Anytime you eliminate split precincts, you eliminate confusion for voters because every voter in the precinct votes in the same legislative district election.

“Our hope is that the public looks at this plan and recognizes the hard work that went into crafting something so complicated,” he said. “It was incredibly important we draft a fair plan that works for everyone. We are confident that this plan meets that test.”

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