TITLE
Title
FINALIZE SELECTION OF PROPOSED REDISTRICTING MAPS AND SET PUBLIC HEARING
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SPONSOR
Sponsor
County Attorney Mark Payne
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BACKGROUND
Background
Local governments are subject to the one person, one vote mandate and are therefore required to review district populations after every census to determine if they remain relatively equal. Local governments cannot redistrict until the Census Bureau reports on its block data. Typically, the data is received in March following the year of the census. Due to COVID-19, the data was not released until August 2021. Census data showed a statewide population increase of approximately one million new inhabitants and population increases in Guilford County triggering the need to redistrict. The Board's adopted criteria are as follows:
Fair and balanced. The districts should be a fair balancing of all necessary principles. No one principle should be abandoned in concession to another.
Compliance with applicable law. The Board of Commissioners shall, as it does with all its endeavors, comply with all relevant law. The make-up of the district will not unfairly discriminate on the basis of race or partisanship. Guilford County recognizes that some demographic differences are inevitable in a population as diverse as Guilford County’s; however, the district, taken together, will not create an unfair and non-representative impact on county elections.
Equal population distribution (‘one person, one vote’). The Board of Commissioners will follow the mandate to keep all districts as equal in population as practicable. In no circumstance will the difference in population between the most and least populous district be more than 5%.
Contiguity. All parts of a district will be contiguous as required by NCGS 153A-22.
Compactness. To the extent practicable, Guilford County will promote compactness of districts.
Preservation of precincts and political boundaries. The Board of Commissioners will endeavor to avoid splitting precincts and will, to the extent practicable, try to preserve political boundaries and census tract lines.
Preservation of communities of interest: Geographical areas, such as neighborhoods of a city or regions of a county, where the residents have common political interests that do not necessarily coincide with the boundaries of a political subdivision, such as a city or county, shall be preserved where possible.
Preservation of cores of prior districts: Existing district lines shall be maintained, to the extent possible, in order to ensure continuity of representation.
Avoiding pairing incumbents: There will be an attempt to avoid pairing incumbents within a district to avoid a district losing representation.
Competitiveness and proportionality: Districts will attempt to be drawn in such a way as to not be unfairly and disproportionately partisan, to the extent such efforts reflect the make-up of the county’s demographics.
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REQUESTED ACTION
Requested Action
Approve final selection of proposed maps for the Guilford County Commissioners' districts and set a public hearing for November 4, 2021 at 5:30 PM for public input on maps prior to adoption.
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