BY MARK J. CRAWFORD
Telegraph Editor
STARKE — With a goal of selecting a new map prior to this year’s elections, Bradford County commissioners have agreed to a timeline to complete redistricting.
County commissioners will be using an online tool to experiment with creating their own maps, and the public is invited to do the same.
Assistant Supervisor of Elections Matt Barksdale introduced commissioners to the website DavesRedistricting.org, which allows users to create a free account and then “paint” districts using census voting blocks, all the while being able to see population and other statistics fluctuate as they add and subtract voting blocks. The work can be saved, exported or shared.
“This tool is designed to kind of put redistricting into everybody’s hands, not leaving it to experts or mapmakers or GIS professionals. Anybody with a computer can just click on it and start creating their own district lines,” Barksdale said.
Supervisor of Elections Amanda Seyfang said without the expensive software to verify the accuracy of the maps and how they impact the current voting precincts, Barksdale must hand verify street addresses and house ranges.
“So, this is a long, lengthy process we do before we even start changing lines. So, once we get an approved map from you guys and the school board, then we look into ‘reprecincting’ to make sure we can readjust our precinct lines to fit into your district boundaries,” Seyfang said, adding it is an approximately three-month process.
Come June, Seyfang said the office’s primary focus must be in preparing for this year’s elections, and that won’t leave time for them to assist much with redistricting.
Because of the tight timeline, county attorney Will Sexton suggested the commissioners work with the mapping website throughout April. Any maps submitted for consideration by the board or the public will be discussed at the commission’s May 2 meeting. Then Sexton will proceed with scheduling the required public hearing, with the hope of getting the new redistricting map approved prior to the start of early voting in August.
Members of the public can create their own maps for consideration. The following parameters must be considered:
—Census blocks containing prison population are excluded during redistricting. For assistance in identifying those blocks, you should contact the elections office. ([email protected])
—Preserving the constitutional principle of one person, one vote, the populations of each of the five voting districts needs to be as close as practicably possible — within a few percentage points.
—The county must maintain at least one district with a majority population of minority residents to help maintain racially diverse representation. Historically, this has been District 1.
In the end, county commissioners and school board members need to agree on the same map as they share district boundaries. Any change in that would increase the cost of elections tremendously, Seyfang said.
The races so far
There are two new entries into the county elections. Commissioner Kenny Thompson is running for reelection in District 2 against Mark Williams. Patricia Tucker has joined the now four-person race for the District 4 county commission seat, along with Tom Germano, Christiann Hudson and Michael Monaghan.
All these candidates are Republicans.
In the nonpartisan races, Gayle Nicula is still unchallenged for the District 2 school board seat, while District 5 incumbent Erica Reddish is facing a challenge from Lynn Melvin.
County Judge Tatum Davis is also running for reelection.
