The Mecklenburg County Redistricting Advisory Committee met March 22 to begin the process of developing a plan for redrawing the County’s six district lines. Redistricting traditionally happens in conjunction with the US Census. Each member of the Board of County Commissioners appointed one person to the committee. At its planning retreat, the Board made several decisions to guide the committee:

1. Create two majority-minority districts (Current Districts 2 and 3 are majority-minority)

2. Draw districts so that the current balance of three Democratic and three Republican districts result from the redistricting

3. Don’t split precincts or County Towns within districts

At its March 22 meeting, the committee agreed to:

• Use total population to allocate districts and to keep the district numbers within 10% of one another.

• Use voting-age population to determine majority-minority districts and that the minority population be at least 53% - 55% in those districts (exact amount will be determined later).

• Continue a discussion about the method to determine the partisan make-up of the districts.The Committee has tentatively scheduled its next meeting for April 5.

Committee members eventually will access an online system to draw lines for each district and then as a committee negotiate final lines. The Committee will make recommendations to the Board in August and the Board will approve the new district lines in September.