LIBERTY — After three public hearings and four plans, Amite County supervisors took less than 30 minutes Thursday to approve a redistricting plan and send it to the U.S. Justice Department.
Board attorney Reggie Jones said he will ask the Justice Department for an expedited hearing on the county’s plan.
The approved Plan 4 alters all present district lines, moving at least two supervisor candidates outside the districts in which they qualified.
The board hopes to have the plan in place in time for the August party primaries, and in anticipation of a possible ruling in a federal suit filed by the NAACP to reopen qualifying for county offices until June 1.
And while the supervisors will have to wait at least 60 days for the Justice Department to approve or reject the proposed plan, residents attending the special morning meeting rendered their verdict after the decision.
They oppose it.
The proposal, known as Plan 4, was one of two redistricting proposals presented at the board’s April 5 redistricting public hearing.
A majority of residents at the April 5 hearing supported another plan, called Plan 5, which is based on the county’s present district lines.
“I don’t understand it. They go against the plan that the public endorsed,” Liberty resident J.D. Patterson said after Thursday’s meeting.
Patterson said he and a committee of residents will send a letter opposing the plan to the Justice Department.
He asked board attorney Reggie Jones for copies of the transcripts from the public hearings and a copy of the Plan 5 map to accompany the letter.
The supervisors voted 2-2 with District 1 Supervisor Dale Sterling and District 4 Supervisor, who are not seeking re- election, supporting the plan. Supervisors Will Powell and Max Lawson opposed it.
Board president Jackie Whittington broke the tie, voting to send the plan to the Justice Department.
“I liked both plans,” Sterling said. “Both were good plans, but Plan 4 had a higher percentage of minorities (in the majority black districts).
“We’ll try this one and see how far we go with it,” he said.
Taylor said he also liked both plans, but Plan 4 was better.
“I thought it was the best plan,” Whittington said. “It had the best minority ratio.”
Whittington added that some of the residents at the April 5 hearing did not support either plan.
“They left the decision in our hands,” he said.
Plan 4 sets supervisor Districts 2 and 5 as the county’s minority districts. The present district plan has Districts 2 and 3 as majority black districts.
Not only does Plan 4 alter all district lines, it also displaces the District 5 election commissioner to another district, Amite County Circuit Clerk Sharon Walsh said.
Walsh said Plan 4 will force county election officials to relocate voters and polling places.
She did not know how many polling places and voters will be moved, pending the plan’s approval by the Justice Department.
Powell said he opposed Plan 4 because of the changes to the district lines.
“Under Plan 5, everything stays pretty much the same,” he said. “There’s very little change. Everybody who qualified stays in their district.”
District 5 Supervisor Lawson said the vote on Plan 4 “is not what the people said.
“They (Sterling, Taylor and Whittington) went against what the people said, in my opinion,” he said after the meeting.
Under Plan 4, District 2’s voting population is 57 percent black, and about 42 percent white.
To reach those ratios, the number of white voters is increased by 106 people, from 1,018 to 1,124. The black voting population is decreased by 101, from 1,638 to 1,537.
The present voter ratio in District 2 is about 59 percent black and about 41 percent white.
In District 5, the number of black voters would increase by 335 people, from 1,155 to 1,490. The number of white voters is decreased by 420 people, from 1,613 to 1,193.
The population shifts in plan 4 give District 5 a voter ratio of about 54 percent black and 45 percent white.
The present voter ratio is about 60 percent white and 39 percent black.
According to a map of the plan:
• District 1 includes the northern part of Amite County and extends south into what is now a part of District 2. It also takes in the northern part and portions of east and west Liberty.
• District 2 includes western Amite County and Centreville.
• District 3 includes the northeast part of the county and Gloster.
• District 4 covers northeast Amite County and east Liberty.
• District 5 includes the southeastern part of the county and south Liberty.
