The Lowndes County Board of Supervisors approved a draft redistricting plan during its regular meeting Monday that will see District 1 and District 2 give up land to the other three districts.
The public hearing on the draft plan will be held at 9:30 a.m. June 6 during the board’s regular meeting.
Consultant Mike Slaughter of Oxford-based urban planning firm Slaughter and Associates was retained in 2021 to handle redistricting in response to the 2020 census, and he had previously told the board that they were out of balance and needed to redistrict. Federal law requires redistricting whenever there is a deviation of more than 10 percent in total population between the smallest and largest districts.
Population numbers were based on the 2020 census, Slaughter explained. Total population declined from 59,779 to 58,879. Racially, the county shifted from 43.5 percent Black, 54 percent white and 2.6 percent other to 44.2 percent Black, 50.6 percent white and 5.3 percent other.
“Other” as a racial category includes American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, “other race” or two or more races.
According to Slaughter, the ideal population for a supervisor district is 11,776. District 2 was the most out of whack, with a population of 13,092. District 1 wasn’t far behind, at 12,989. The other three districts were all under the ideal population — District 3’s population was 11,104; District 4 was at 10,733; and District 5 was 10,961.
The county’s overall deviation was a whopping 20.1 percent, Slaughter said. The plan he presented Monday morning sliced that down to 4.5 percent, well below the legal requirement. Under the draft, District 2 would still be the most populated, at 11,925. District 3 would have the lowest population, at 11,400.
“We were directed to come up with a preliminary plan,” he said. “We didn’t have any input from the supervisors or anyone else. We were just told to get one that was in balance. Then we take and tweak that plan if we need to.”
The first area to change is around East Emerald Estates in East Columbus, between Lehmberg Road in the east and Beech Street in the west, and Bennett Avenue and Cypress Street in the north and Alabama Street in the south. It will move from District 1 to District 4.
District 1 will also lose an area from the Luxapalila River north to Jemison Mill Road, Steens Road and Steens-Vernon Road that will move to District 3.
District 5 will absorb an area from District 2 that is bounded in the south by the Tombigbee River, to the east by Highway 45 and to the north by Waverly Ferry Road.
Finally, a small, northern portion of Moss Street, Shady Street, Waterworks Road and Johnson Street that was previously in District 2 will be moved into District 5.
District 1 Supervisor Harry Sanders asked Slaughter to be careful not to move people into places where they would be much farther away from their polling places.
“If you move folks out of District 1 into District 3, for example, their polling place could be on the opposite side of (the Luxapalila River),” Sanders said. “Then they would have to go all the way around to vote.”
“If it causes a problem, we can look at the polling places once we decide on district lines,” Slaughter said. “If you have a polling place in one district, people can come from another district to vote there. They are voting in the right polling places.”
A map of the proposed district lines is available for review at the county administrator’s office, located upstairs at 1121 Main St.
Brian Jones is the local government reporter for Columbus and Lowndes County.
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