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 splitti...
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