Redistricting Done
| At last week's redistricting meeting, the voting
members of the committee voted to adopt "Plan C" as the plan for
redistricting. Redistrict of county commission districts is required, by
law, every ten years after a federal census to equally balance all the
districts. Each of the ten commissioners should represent,
substantially, an equal number of citizens. The goal in redistricting is
to equal up the populations by district and to do so by moving the
fewest number of people possible.
At the previous meeting on September 22, "Plan A" and
"Plan B" were presented to the committee by Loudon County Election
Coordinator, Susan Harrison. Ms. Harrison had prepared those plans for
the committee to have a starting point for discussion. Committee members
who are also commissioners, reviewed the plans making minor changes and
compiled those changes into Days after the 22nd meeting, Mike Campbell, Loudon County Property Assessor, who was a non voting member of the redistricting committee, working with 2nd district commissioner, Matt Tinker, and Julia Hurley, devised a "Plan D". That plan was sent to committee members to review. "Plan D" moved thousands of residents around in the 2nd, 5th and 6th districts. "Plan D" also created strangely irregular district boundary lines. "Plan D" also included moving Ms. Hurley's home that she moved to back in 2019 from the 5th district, into the 2nd district. You may remember, Hurley moved out of her elected 2nd district home into her 5th district home back in 2019 effectively giving up her county commission seat. The case is set to go to trial in December. "Plan D" looked to be the most political gerrymandered district lines the county had ever seen. Ultimately, "Plan D" was not even considered at the meeting and "Plan C" was adopted. In "Plan C", 501 citizens were moved from district 1 to district 4; 928 citizens were moved from district 7 to district 1; 322 citizens were moved from district 5 to district 2 (All from the Cove Apartments), 11 citizens were moved from district 6 to district 2 (All from the marina) and no citizens were moved in the 3rd district. Only about 3% of the population will see any change. Every registered voter who's district or precinct is changed will receive notification from the election commission office in the future. |
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10/4/21