MONROE, La. – We are taking an in-depth look at how the city plans to make the changes. The city hired a group to draw the district lines but the 2020 census will play a major role in this process.
Drawing voting districts is an important task. It impacts representation and who provides a voice for residents and the north delta planning and development district is leading the change in West Monroe.
“Reapportionment redistricting, the purpose of redistricting every 10 years is to make sure the districts are in alignment with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Which is basically representing the one man one vote. One person’s vote is just as important as the other person’s,” said Doug Mitchell, Executive Director at North Delta Planning Group.
Officials say there may be a delay in the release of the census data. It’s expected to be released on April 30th. Executive Director, Doug Mitchell says the pandemic may push back that back to September.
“We can’t redistrict or reapportion until the census data comes out,” said Mitchell.
Mitchell says when they get the data his team will look at the geographic region. Then Mitchell will start drawing district boundaries.
“When you’re drawn up districts, for an entity, whether the Parish governing body or a city governing body, you have to utilize their boundaries. In the case of a city, you may have to use split precincts or split precincts because you don’t have enough building blocks to take the 2020 data and redistrict it out based on the district. So you have to have established district lines,” said Mitchell.
Once the U.S. Department of Justice approves the proposal, it will take effect in the next municipal election cycle which is set to take place in Spring 2022.
