If ever a man needed to do his work in pencil, it is Toby Sanford.
Sanford is Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Manager for the Golden Triangle Planning and Development Partnership (GTPDP) in Starkville.
When you navigate beyond that sea of acronyms, the layman’s description for what Toby Sanford does is simple: He’s the guy in charge of drawing up the new ward boundaries when a city or county goes through re-districting.
The nature of re-districting means that Sanford’s work is done and re-done, drawn and re-drawn repeatedly. It is not uncommon for Sanford to re-draw boundaries as many as seven or eight times. That’s a lot of erasing.
Fortunately, Sanford has the latest software and the requisite skill at his disposal. What was once an arduous, painstaking task, Sanford now performs with the click-and-drag of a computer mouse.
“I try to make everybody happy,” Sanford said. “When you can make everybody happy – and that has to include the Justice Department – that’s when you know you are done.”
On Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., Sanford will present his third and fourth versions of the city’s re-districting plan in a public hearing at the regular Board of Aldermen meeting. Sanford drew up the first two proposals before receiving any input from the aldermen, based strictly on the requirements set by federal law. He fully expects that he’ll be back to the drawing board once the public has offered recommended changes.
“If somebody in the public recommends a change, I make another version,” Sanford said.
Once the public hearings are over and all of the recommended proposals have been committed to paper, the Board of Aldermen will choose from among the proposals. From there, the proposal goes to the U.S. Justice Department for approval.
There is a time element involved in the process. Federal law dictates that all re-districting must be finished 45 days prior to the date the absentee ballots go out for the November 2013 election.
“Obviously, we like to have it wrapped up well before then,” Sanford said.
Starkville is but one of many re-districting projects Sanford is working on. His region includes seven counties and the cities that lie within those counties.
Of course, not all counties and cities are required to re-district. Federal law mandates that re-districting is required only when the population of a ward has fluctuated by more than 10 percent since the previous U.S. Census.
Both Oktibbeha County and Starkville have been required to go through re-districting after the 2000 and 2010 censuses because of population growth.
On the flip side, Louisville, Macon and Eupora have gone through redistricting due to a significant losses in population. Cities can also opt for re-districting on their own, even if their population fluctuation is less than 10 percent. In fact, Sanford is drawing up re-districting plans for Ackerman, which is voluntarily going through the process.
The re-districting process is pretty straightforward.
The city’s population, based on the Census figures is divided equally among the wards.
With a population of 23,888, each ward – in theory – should have 3,413 residents. Achieving that precise parity is impossible, so the law allows a 10 percent variance. Because some wards have grown in population while others have declined, re-districting means some wards will pick up residents while others lose residents.
Ward 1 is the most affected. Ward 1’s population is 5,123 according to the census figures, which means the ward is 50.12 percent above the mean – or average – of 3,413.
As a result, the ward will lose 1,218 residents.
“Just looking at the numbers, I knew I would be losing some residents,” said Ward 3 Alderman Eric Parker. “The way the maps look now, I’ll lose Pleasant Acres, Timber Cove and all along Academy Drive. There are a lot of voters in those areas, because they are residential.
“I think it’s going to have a huge effect on Ward 4, because adding those three areas to that ward is going to change its landscape. It will go from a student-dominated ward, where there is usually low voter turnout, to a ward where a lot of people vote.”
Ward 3 will also lose residents – 534 total – while the other five wards will gain anywhere from 439 (Ward 7) to 587 (Ward 5) residents.
Because population figures dictate how the wards are drawn, some wards will increase or decrease geographically.
That’s a concern for Ward 2 Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk.
“The problem is that when a ward gets bigger, you find that the problems in one area of the ward can be much different than the problems in another part of the ward,” Sistrunk said. “But it’s the nature of it. There are only so many ways you can draw the maps.”
Aside from population equality, the only other criterion that dictates how wards can be drawn is along racial lines. The Voting Rights Act dictates that minority wards must remain minority wards.
“Other than that, really, the maps can be drawn just about any way the aldermen or the public wants,” Sanford said. “The only caveat to that is that wards half to be contiguous; you can’t have a part of a ward separated from the main part. That’s about it.”
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