Current map of Smith County precincts before redistricting. 

Smith County commissioners Wednesday began discussions on the first draft of a redistricting map.

With the release of the 2020 census, data showed the county would have to go through the redistricting process to meet population requirements in each precinct.

“Today’s discussion is just a beginning discussion — that’s it,” said County Judge Nathaniel Moran. “There’s been no decisions made.  There’s no final conclusions, there’s no presumptive decision at all.”

Data showed Smith County grew from 209,714 residents in 2010 to 233,479 in 2020. Some areas of the county grew unevenly, meaning precinct lines will have to be altered for equal representation.

The ideal size of each precinct is 58,370 residents. Currently, Pct. 1 is the largest with 64,780 people, while Pct. 4 is the smallest with 52,238. This makes the overall deviation in the county 21.49%, and it has to be at 10% or less, according to federal law.

In the initial plan, voting Pcts. 44, 48 and 65 would be moved from Pct. 1 to 4. This is one example of how population can be shifted to get below a 10% deviation, said Philip Arnold, partner at the law firm of Bickerstaff Heath Delgado Acosta.

The first draft of the plan and moves voting Pct. 56 from Pct. 3 and adds it into Pct. 2.

Pct. 1 Commissioner Neal Franklin said he believes the idea for Pcts. 1 and 4 is good and would like to get feedback from his constituents. However, Pct. 3 Commissioner Terry Phillips objected to moving voting Pct. 56 to Pct. 2.

Giving up voting Pct. 56 would mess up the Republican votes in Pct. 2, Phillips said.

“I’m looking at Republican vs. Democrat. (Pct.) Fifty-six is 74% Republican voters. You’re reducing the potential for Republican voters in Pct. 3,” he said.

Commissioners discussed numerous options for how to redistrict. Moran emphasized that no conclusions were made Tuesday and the discussion would open once again during the next redistricting workshop Oct. 26.

“What our goal is for today is to come up with three or four plans we can put on the website,” Moran said. “You guys (commissioners) can consider, talk to your constituents (and) get some feedback about which direction to go.”

Four potential plans were created for consideration. These include:

• Moving voting Pcts. 44, 48 and 65 from Pct. 1 to Pct. 4 and moving voting Pct. 56 from Pct. 3 to Pct. 2.
• Moving voting Pcts. 44, 48 and 65 from Pct. 1 to Pct. 4 and moving voting Pct. 22 from Pct. 3 to Pct. 2.
• Moving voting Pcts. 44, 48 and 65 from Pct. 1 to Pct. 4 and moving voting Pcts. 22 and 61 from Pct. 3 to Pct. 2.
• Moving voting Pcts. 44, 48 and 65 from Pct. 1 to Pct. 4 and splitting up voting Pct. 10 in Pct. 3 to give some of it to Pct. 2.

All maps are expected to be posted on Smith County’s website by Thursday. Moran said a post will likely be made on Facebook to let the public know when the maps are available to view.

While going through the redistricting process, the county adopted criteria to help govern the process. The three principles for redistricting include one person, one vote (equal population), voting rights act 2 (nondiscrimination), and Shaw v. Reno (limits use of race). Voting rights act 5 (retrogression) is also used as a diagnostic tool.

Criteria adopted to comply with these principles include identifiable boundaries, maintaining communities of interest and neighborhoods, if possible using whole voting precincts, basing plan on existing districts, adopting districts of relatively equal size (population), drawing contiguous and compact districts, keeping existing incumbents in their district and narrowly tailoring plan to comply with the voting rights act.

Updated information about the redistricting process and public meeting times can be found at tinyurl.com/smithredistricting .