So you finally figured out where you needed to vote in in the recent Clarksdale city elections, but that could change before municipal elections come back around in four years.
Mississippi has lost population but will keep its four Congressional Districts and the population shift from rural to metropolitan areas will prompt a redrawing of district lines at the federal, state and local level.
The U.S. Census Bureau recently announced it would deliver redistricting data to all states by Sept. 30, 2021. That data, after it has been reviewed by the Standing Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Standing Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee, will be handed down to the local level and can be used to redraw both city commissioner wards and county supervisor districts.
The Lieutenant Governor and Speaker of the House will call an organizational meeting of the Joint Committees to begin work on redrawing the statewide maps at some point.
Mississippi has not redrawn district lines since 2013 and those changes were not much different from the 2003 map, although it did push the Second Congressional District north and farther west.
Redistricting is the process by which new congressional and state legislative district boundaries are drawn. Since redistricting hinges on Census data, Mississippi’s new district lines would probably be in place for the 2023 state and local elections.
But the Census Bureau missed many deadlines in 2020 due to COVID-19 and this could push back redistricting plans.
Each of Mississippi's four United States Representatives and 174 state legislators are elected from political divisions called districts. United States Senators are not elected by districts, but by the states at large. District lines are redrawn every 10 years following completion of the United States census.
The federal government stipulates that districts must have nearly equal populations and must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.
Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann named 10 members of the Mississippi Senate to the Standing Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Standing Joint Congressional Redistricting Committee today.
Members include:
• Sen. David Parker, 1st Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Angela Turner Ford, 1st Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Briggs Hopson, 2nd Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Derrick Simmons, 2nd Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Josh Harkins, 3rd Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Dean Kirby, 3rd Congressional Dist. (Chairman)
• Sen. Dennis DeBar, 4th Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Brice Wiggins, 4th Congressional Dist.
• Sen. Jeff Tate, Chair-man of the Elections Committee
• Sen. Hob Bryan, Vice Chairman of the Elections Committee
According to state statute, the Committees must include the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Elections Committee, and two members from each of the state’s congressional districts. Members will be responsible for reapportioning the Legislature and redistricting the state’s four congressional districts after receiving data from the 2020 Decennial Census.
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