The Liberty County Board of Commissioners voted to adopt the new district maps at their Dec. 7 regular meeting. The vote was not unanimous as Commissioner Marion Stevens questioned the numbers and said the new map, “Was setting district one up for failure.”
Stevens questioned attorney Jimmy McDonald, who was hired by the County to help redraw the maps, about the breakdown of numbers.
“Numbers do add up for itself and these numbers are not adding up,” Stevens said. “I won’t sit here and beat that dead horse because I think a decision has already been made on certain issues.”
McDonald said all the changes satisfy the “one man one vote,” requirement and the Voting Rights Act requirement. The County ended up with three majority / minority districts. All the districts were balanced to have 10,000 plus per district (average being 10,876, except for district one at 10,822). District one and two are 51 percent African American, district five is 55 percent African American. District six is 44 percent African American. District three is 36 percent African American and district four is 21 percent African American.
Stevens said the way district one was drawn could mean that someone could be voted in to serve the district who lives in the center of Hinesville and leave the rest of the district without proper representation.
McDonald explained that district one needed to add a substantial number of people and due to population density, “There was not many places we could go to get those people to meet the requirements we had to balance out the districts,” McDonald said.
Stevens argued that picking up one subdivision would have balanced out his district. But Mc-Donald said they also had to follow the majority / minority district rules.
“If there was an objective manner in drawing your district making sure it was not diluted in minority representation, we legally had to draw that,” McDonald said, explaining why district one was drawn as it was.
McDonald said the majority of district one is still on the east end of the County.
Many of the commissioners expressed their opinions on the new maps. The majority of the commissioners appreciated the job McDonald had to do and said future candidates who run for the commissioners’ seats will likely be elected because they are willing to do what is right for the people in their districts and not based on race or political affiliation.
The County Commissioners and the Board of Education collaborated in the process along with McDonald and Hinesville’s geographic information system department coordinator, Wincy Poon.
The City of Hinesville presented their new five district map at their Dec. 2, meeting and seemed ready to adopt the new map at their upcoming Dec. 16 Council meeting. However, there are others that are not pleased with the new County map. District two Board of Education member Marcus Scott IV has publicly stated the new map is illegal. On his Facebook Page, the day before the Commissioners’ meeting, he posted folks should voice their concerns about the “gerrymandering,” of the proposed maps. On his Educational Hotline on Nov. 24, Scott spoke about the proposed maps saying it was clear another agenda was being served and the map was not representing the districts appropriately.
The Board of Education was scheduled to meet last night and take action on the new maps but the meeting and voting took place after our press deadline. If the BOE approved the maps, the new districts will stand and be sent to the state for final certification. If the BOE voted against the proposed maps, the redrawing process would have to be done again. If that happens the County and BOE would need to get the process done in time for mid-term elections in 2022. The city of Hinesville doesn’t have an election cycle next year.
The new maps are posted online at: https:// libertycounty-redistricting-2021-hinesville-gis.hub.arcgis.com/