In a meeting at the Columbus Municipal Complex, the Columbus City Council Thursday will continue redistricting discussions, with Chris Watson of Oxford-based Bridge and Watson.
“This will be another work session for the councilmen, leading up to the drawing of a proposed redistricting map that will then have to be approved by the U.S. Department of Justice,” said Columbus Chief Operating Officer David Armstrong.
“Our first and foremost task is to re-balance the population,” Watson said. “Columbus has a 20 percent deviance from overpopulated to underpopulated. This number has to get under 10 percent.”
Some councilmen exchanged harsh words in an April 17 meeting, regarding redistricting ethics and political favoritism. Ward 5 Councilman Kabir Karriem then said he was not prepared to make decisions about his ward.
“I felt I needed more information before I made a decision about redrawing the lines in my ward,” Karriem said Tuesday. “I feel more informed going into this meeting. This is not about us councilmen; it’s about the citizens and the future of Columbus. I don’t think we should just rush through this. We need to see every option available.”
Redistricting is required by law under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibits states from imposing any voting qualification or denying or abridging “the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”
“This is done every 10 years,” Armstrong said. “If you have a variance of 10 percent or more in any ward, you have to redistrict. We have a variance of 20 percent. What that means is that we have 23,640 people in Columbus. The wards should be divided at 3,940 people in each ward, but that’s never the case.”
2010 Census data shows Ward 4 as the most underpopulated ward, with a variance of negative 427 or negative 10 percent, down from 219 people in 2000. Ward 6 is the most heavily populated, with a positive variance of 360 or 9.1 percent.
“What I want to get away from is stacking, which is when minorities are stacked in a ward,” Karriem said. “We weren’t a majority African American community 10 years ago. Today, African Americans are 60 percent majority and this needs to reflect this. Things are different today. We have wards in Columbus that are 80 to 90 percent African American and we don’t need that anymore. We need to be a more diverse community. I think redistricting is going to be a heated issue between some of the council members.”
The specially called meeting will be held Thursday, May 10 at 2:30 p.m. at the command center at the Municipal Complex.
Jeff Clark was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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