Some parts of Moore County have grown faster than others in the past ten years; results of the 2010 Census make that clear. And that leaves the Moore County Board of Commissioners with the task of deciding how to redraw the lines of the Commissioner and Board of Education districts to reflect the changes.
That challenge was the focus of a special Commissioners Work Session on Thursday, September 22, with four options put on the table for review.
The goal is to take Moore County’s current population of 88,000 residents and evenly divide that into five voting districts, each holding roughly 17,600 residents. Moore County’s districts are “residency districts.” The Commissioner from District II must reside in District II, but all county voters cast ballots for that seat on the Board.
One of the problems in moving district lines is the chance that a sitting member of the Board will find his or her residence no longer within the district he or she represents.
Commissioner Tim Lea stressed during Tuesday’s meeting that moving certain district lines could affect whether a commissioner could run again in the future or not.
For instance, District III is represented by Commissioner Craig Kennedy and is currently the smallest district in the County. In an effort to increase the population to get it as close as possible to the 17,600 mark, some residents from District II — the largest in the County and represented by Chairman Nick Picerno — would have to move over to District III.
Given that Picerno, who lives in McLendon HIlls, already resides close to to District III territory, rebalancing Districts II & III could move his home into District III, which would prevent him from running for re-election in District II or force him to run against Commissioner Kennedy for the District III seat.
During Tuesday’s meeting, President Jo Nicholas, of the Moore County League of Women Voters, asked the Commissioners to redefine residency districts to make them more nearly equal and to do so in such a manner that would not preclude currently seated members of the Moore County Board of Commissioners and Board of Education from running in future elections.
Of the five options presented to the Board by County GIS Director Chris Koltyk, only one allows the districts to remain the same for both the current Commissioners and School Board members while evenly dividing the population.
At least one option would split Seven Lakes between two districts.
Commissioner Kennedy told those in attendance at Tuesday’s meeting, “We [Commissioners] all work for you. It doesn’t matter where the lines are drawn.” Kennedy added that he would work the same for anyone in the County, whether they were his neighbor or not.
Chairman Picerno told The Times that his main concern is to make sure that the number of voters are as evenly distributed as possible while avoiding to the degree possible splitting towns across district line.
“Populations should drive the map,” he said, adding, “tonight is just the starting point to get some input.”
Each of the five voting redistricting options will be placed on the Moore County website for residents to review. Voting redistricting lines in the County need to be decided by the end of January 2012.
