A meltdown has been brewing all week. The temperature has been steadily rising, noxious elements are being spewed and charges are flying.
I’m not talking about what’s going on at the nuclear power plant in Japan that was damaged by an earthquake a little over a week ago. I’m talking about the debate on redistricting in the state Legislature in Jackson.
“This redistricting process looks like it’s headed for a train wreck on the state level,” Carroll County Circuit Clerk Durward Stanton told the Greenwood Kiwanis Club last Thursday.
Legislators are trying to draw new district lines to reflect population changes revealed by the 2010 Census. Area officials must do the same thing.
Mississippi officials, like those in other Southern states, face an additional hurdle when it comes to redistricting. Under the provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department has to approve all new Mississippi districts.
Republicans in the Legislature say Democrats are trying to draw districts so that they can hang on to power in the House, specifically to the Speaker of the House job. Democrats say Republicans are trying to broaden their power in both the Senate and the House. Welcome to two-party politics in Mississippi.
When the Senate rejected the House redistricting plan last Thursday, the NAACP filed a lawsuit in federal court to block elections in the current districts. The legislative session ends in two weeks and the qualifying deadline for legislative elections in June 1.
The odds are good that we will have legislative elections in 2011 and 2012. Ultimately, a federal judge may draw the new maps.
The supervisors of Leflore and Carroll counties have already decided to hold this year’s elections with the present districts. Both counties will have to draw new lines, but there wasn’t time between the release of census numbers in early February and the March 1 qualifying deadline for county races to create new maps and get federal approval.
There’s a chance that both counties will have to hold elections in 2011 and 2012. The Leflore County supervisors have said they are prepared to do that, if necessary.
Stanton said he is optimistic Carroll County won’t have to hold two elections. He said a candidate who sued for a new election “would have to show malicious intent” by county officials in holding elections in the present districts. I hope he’s right about that.
Stanton said that the 2010 Census points out, again, the problems created when people don’t send in their census forms.
For example, Stanton said, the latest census shows that the population in Carroll County’s Beat 5 has fallen from 2,125 in 2000 to 1,611 in 2010, a drop of 24.19 percent.
Beat 5 is located in the southeast portion of the county around Vaiden. Stanton, who lives in the area says that he doesn’t believe the census’ population number is correct. One reason for that is because Beat 5 has 1,439 registered voters this year.
Obviously, somebody’s count is incorrect. But it doesn’t matter now.
“”Once these (census) numbers come to you, you’ve got to live with them and deal with them,” Stanton said.
• Contact Charles Corder at cccorder at gwcommonwealth.com.
