The DeKalb County Commission, which also makes up the redistricting committee, has completed a redistricting plan to better equalize the population count among the seven districts of the county based on the results of the 2010 census. What that means is that some residents who are currently in a particular district now will soon find themselves in another district, which also means they will have a different school board member, constable, and county commissioners representing them than those who currently serve them.
The committee met Thursday night at the courthouse to approve the plan after receiving the newly drawn redistricting map for the county from the State Comptroller of the Treasury Office of Local Government. The plan is expected to be formally approved during the next meeting of the county commission this month.
2010 census figures show that DeKalb’s population is now at 18,723. In order to make them equal in population, each of the seven districts would need a population of no more than 2,675. But the districts don’t have to be exactly equal in population, as long as the overall population deviation of the county is not more than 10%. DeKalb County’s overall deviation is 17%
In DeKalb County, the third district has a total of 2,890 residents while the seventh district’s population totals 2,881, which makes each of those districts deviation over by +8%. The second district, meanwhile, has 2,428 residents, which puts it’s deviation under by -9%. Adding the +8% to the -9% puts DeKalb County’s overall deviation at 17%. Since the overall benchmark is 10%, the boundaries in at least some or all of the districts will need to be adjusted to bring the overall range down to 10% or below.
Under the new redistricting plan, the highest deviations, plus or minus, will be in the fourth and sixth districts. The fourth district’s population will be 2,719 with a deviation over by +1.7% while in the sixth district, the population will be 2,644 for a deviation of -1.1%, putting the county’s overall deviation at 2.8%. Again, the county can have an overall deviation of up to 10%, so the 2.8% deviation under the new redistricting plan will be well within the range allowed by law.
“This tells us that we have our numbers correct now in the districts,” said County Mayor Mike Foster. It did necessitate moving a few lines but basically the districts are pretty much the same as they were. Some people in some of the districts got moved to other districts because of the way the numbers fell. We hoped we could keep it all the same but we had a 17% disparity and we have to be less than 10%. Number wise, the first district now has 2,671 people and to be perfect it would have needed four more people. The second district had 2,681 which was six people too many. The third district has 2,673 and needed two more people. The fourth district has 2,719 which is 44 people too many. The fifth district has 2,666 and needed nine more people. The sixth district has 2,644 and needed 31 more people. The seventh district has 2,669 and needed six more people. This is the closest we can get to where we need to be. The state required that we be within a 10% overall range and we’re now, with this plan, at 2.8%. I think most people are comfortable in the districts they are in and they don’t like to move. I wouldn’t want to either. But it’s a necessity. All districts changed just a little. There were some districts that didn’t need to change but in order to change the ones that did (need changing) we had to change them too to make it work,” said Foster.
Under the new redistricting plans, the population in each district will be as follows:
First district: 2,671, a deviation of -0.1% or four persons
Second district: 2,681, a deviation of +0.2% or six persons
Third district: 2,673, a deviation of -0.1% or two persons
Fourth district: 2,719, a deviation of +1.7% or 44 persons
Fifth district: 2,666, a deviation of -0.3% or nine persons
Sixth district: 2,644, a deviation of -1.1% or thirty one persons
Seventh district: 2,669, a deviation of -0.2% or six persons
Under the law, the new redistricting plan must be in place by January 1, 2012.
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