BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — The city of Starke is moving forward with redistricting and try to get it done before the 2022
election.
Attorney Clay Martin reviewed the history and his research with the commission on Oct. 19. While the city hasn’t redistricted since the single-member districts were established some 30 years ago, Martin said requirements for counties such as a decennial review do not apply to municipalities. He could not find legislation that required cities to redistrict in odd-numbered years either.
What does apply to all elected governments is the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee to voter representation — one man, one vote. If voting district populations are not balanced, then equal representation is nonexistent.
While Starke’s population hasn’t changed much since the 1980s, there’s reason to believe that district populations have as people moved in and out of different areas in the city.
This matters not just because of the guarantee of equal representation. Starke is under a court order to provide diverse representation. Because it was nearly impossible to elect African American leaders, the NAACP filed a lawsuit claiming violation of the federal Voting Rights Act. While the county and school board settled and agreed to redraw district lines, Starke did not and lost.
As a result, the court ordered that instead of electing commissioners through at-large elections of all voters, voters would be divided into single-member districts, with one of them having a majority population of minority voters.
“I think everybody would agree that the order had its intended effect, and that minorities were elected to the city commission,” Martin said.
The city is still under that court order, so any changes made during this redistricting process must pass muster with the United States District Court for the Middle District.
The court may also have something to say about the city moving to four-year terms of elected officials, which is different than the two-year terms contained in the court order.
While not likely to be completed this year, redistricting could be completed prior to the 2022 commissioner elections. That should be the goal. Martin told commissioners that if the court is not pleased with a laissez-faire approach to redistricting, it could call for a new election based on a newly drawn map.
“I would liken it to being diagnosed with cancer that’s been delayed in diagnosis and treatment. The longer you wait, the worse it gets,” Martin said. “When it comes to a federal court judge and the Voting Rights Act, they have pretty broad powers to give effect to that.”
The city plans to hire a consultant to help analyze census data and redraw the district map and submit drafts to the commission for approval. The commission allocated $30,000 to provide legal consulting and take the map to court.
Martin said he expects they will be working with the NAACP or some other voting rights group during this process.
“We will be engaged in, I think, a positive way, with the idea that they will be assisting the city and meeting its goal of having free and fair elections, tied to the one-man, one-vote principle, and making sure that based on the city’s distribution of minorities, that there is adequate access to the ballot and to elected positions in the city,” he said.
There will be public workshops with the consultant for community input into the process, as well.
There is always the possibility someone will contest the map, which would add time and expense to the process.
The final date for consultants to respond to the city’s advertisement is Oct. 28.
