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Supervisors mull redistricting By SUE WATSON
Staff Writer The
Marshall County Board of Supervisors expressed worry recently about
redrawing of supervisor district lines in time for the March 1, 2011,
qualifying deadline for candidates. They
discussed possible problems of getting new districts drawn up using
2010 Census data and then approved by the U.S. Department of Justice in
time for the deadline. If the boundaries are not
redrawn and approved in time, the board members worried they may have
to run for their positions twice, next year and then again in 2012. A
similar problem of getting 1990 Census data back in time to redraw
district lines occurred in 1991 and 1992 when two elections were held
back-to-back for supervisors and state legislators. The
Mississippi Legislature has already anticipated the problem and pushed
their qualifying deadline forward to June 1, 2011 - hopefully long
enough for lawmakers to get district lines redrawn and approved by
Justice. Marshall County supervisors were upset
last week that the Legislature did not include the counties in its plan
to push qualifying dates for local candidates to June 1. Marshall
County supervisor districts will likely have to be redrawn due to
growth in the last decade in the northern portion of the county. Senate
elections chairman Terry Burton of Newton said in a press conference
last week that there was no political will to push back the qualifying
deadline for county supervisors. But, he said,
in past times it has not been difficult for boards to get permission to
delay the qualifying deadline for local candidates. Supervisor
George Zinn Ill brought the matter before the board at the first
meeting in October while the county’s legislative consultant Gary
Anderson was present. “Why did the legislators not give the supervisors the same privilege?” he asked. He
suggested the legislature could have asked to postpone redistricting to
the 2012 election if there is not enough time to get the redistricting
plan filed before the March 1, 2011, deadline for candidates to qualify. Anderson said the Legislature could get a bill together quickly to give counties more time. “They overlooked you because they were focused on their own redistricting,” he said. Board
attorney Kent Smith explained that a statewide approval for the
Legislature to redraw their districts was approved because it involved
the federal government’s approval. “I think the
Legislature and attorney general’s office needs to be involved, if a
big redistricting issue is in place,” Smith said. “A statewide problem
needs the Legislature and Justice to sign off on it. It would be nice
to put off redistricting until 2012.” Sen. Bill
Stone explained how legislators handled the redistricting for
themselves in 2009, anticipating a tight deadline between receiving
Census 2010 data and getting districts redrawn and approved. During
the 2009 session, the Legislature changed the qualifying deadline for
the House and Senate races to June 1, 2011, he said. That means the
Legislature will get its Census data in time to redraw district lines
and give an additional three months (March-May) that Justice requires
to approve the state plan. The Legislature
decided then that not all counties would need supervisor districts to
be redrawn because the population in any district had not shifted
substantially. Counties that were not expecting a change in district
lines were not in favor of a shift to June 1 for their qualifying
deadlines, Stone said. All counties still have to
file a plan, even if it is the old one, Stone said. He said Justice
would have a lot of work to do on redistricting with there being 82
counties that will have to file a redistricting plan for the supervisor
districts and the court districts and then review the state legislative
plans and the congressional district plans as well. At
the time the Legislature moved their qualifying deadline ahead, it was
Stone and also Burton’s understanding that the counties would file
their plans individually and request a qualifying deadline be changed
if they wanted one. “It is my understanding it
was going to have to be done on a county-by-county basis through and
agreement between the Mississippi Association of Supervisors, the two
chairs in the House and Senate and the Secretary of State,” Stone said. “That way if Marshall County has to redistrict, they can ask for a change of deadline.” Stone
added that he expects the legislative redistricting will be a big issue
for the Legislature - to get the redistricting plan drawn up by March 1
and approved by Justice by June 1. “If we don’t
get that approved, we could be in the same shape as the supervisors,”
said Stone. “The state Legislature had to run two times, once in 1991
and a second time in 1992.” Stone said it is
difficult for elected officials to raise enough money to run for a race
once and having to run again in 2012 would be “a big problem.” He
added that in general, voter turnout for an election is better when
state and local races are all on the ballot the same year. Supervisors
discussed attending a workshop on the redistricting issue with the
Mississippi Association of Supervisors this week.
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