PEORIA -- The Peoria County Board's redistricting committee has broad powers, not only to recommend the way the board's district lines will be redrawn but to recommend how many districts and board representatives there will be for the next decade. The County Board makes the final decisions.
The committee first met on March 30, where chairman Allen Mayer, a Democrat and an attorney, talked about what is to be done. The new districts must be in place by July 1. The committee plans to work on the districts in April and May, then present resolutions for passage by the full board in June.
Precinct lines will be drawn after the board completes its work on its districts, he said.
Mayer said the 18 board districts likely will remain, since there's not much appetite for changing them. The committee will try to equalize the districts based on population shifts as determined by the US Census. An equal distribution would mean about 10,360 voters in each district, he said.
Some now are over that total, and some under, and must be adjusted.
"We represent people, not cities," Mayer said, in explaining why districts may end up splitting municipal boundaries.
He demonstrated a computer program based on the GIS system used by county officials. It imports census blocks, municipal boundaries and can even import data on the political parties voters choose in the primaries.
That data can be used to create "safe" districts for incumbents, though that was not discussed at the meeting.
"You add census blocks to each district to reach the ideal" number, Mayer said.
Mayer will have access to the computer system, and the Republican caucus on the board also will have access, with both working on the computer program to draw redistricting maps.
Board member Steve Morris, a Republican, expressed hope that the maps will be similar.
The maps also must take into account the Voting Rights Act, so minority voters are not so dispersed that they have little chance of electing their representatives.
Board member Mike Phelan said population shifts in Peoria County show the problems in the older neighborhoods. He mentioned "abandoned roads and schools," and said "this shows the problems we should be paying attention to."
The next committee meeting will be at 4 p.m. on April 27 in the county courthouse, where preliminary maps will be presented.
-- Elaine Hopkins
It's always amazing reading or commenting on a blog from which we get a full knowledge. Same as here I have found some really interesting information which is simply a great boost to my knowledge.
Posted by: computers from warehouse | April 12, 2011 at 05:41 AM