Public Hearing For Redistricting Set For Thursday

North Mississippi House Districts as of 2002

By David Howell
Editor

WATER VALLEY – As the 2010 Census winds down, state lawmakers have already started work for redistricting. A series of 12 public meetings to allow public input into redistricting kicks off Monday, Aug. 16, and continues through Sept. 15.

    The closest public hearing to Yalobusha County will be held August 19, beginning at 6 p.m., at Oxford in the University of Mississippi’s Fulton Chapel.

    “I urge all citizens to attend these very important meetings. Our committee appreciates the importance of our duty to redistrict to assure one man one vote,” Representative Tommy Reynolds told the Herald.

    Redistricting is the process by which the Legislature redraws the boundaries of congressional and legislative districts.

    Reynolds is serving as the Vice-Chairman of the Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting.

    Reynolds reported Cen-sus data should be available to state officials by Feb. 4, 2011, giving state law makers several months before the June 1 qualifying deadline for state elections. Every two decades the redistricting year coincides with state elections.

    “For the first time in Mississippi’s history, the last legislative single-member redistricting plan was approved by the federal government without court involvement,” Reynolds reported about the 2000 redistricting process.

   “We want to repeat this by creating a plan that truly represents all the people of our state. Our success depends on citizen participation in this process which we strongly encourage,” Reynolds added.