New five- and three-district voting maps for Warren County were approved Tuesday by the U.S. Justice Department.

District 5 Supervisor Richard George, board president, said the plan, drafted by the supervisors and Central Mississippi Planning and Development District consultants, involved the fewest changes to the voting lines as far as the precinct polling stations are concerned.

“We encourage people to participate in the election process,” he said. “So we wanted to avoid as much confusion as possible.”

The new five-district map will be used in voting for supervisors this fall and for election commission and school board seats in future balloting. The new three-district map will be used for constable and justice court judge elections.

Election commissioners may now reassign voters who have been “moved” to different districts with the changes, informing them where to cast ballots in party primaries Aug. 5 and the Nov. 4 general election.

The maps do not place any people now in public office in districts with other incumbents, meaning all can seek re-election without ballot opposition from colleagues.

George said the major line adjustments added people to districts 2 and 3, which had lost population since the 1990 census, and balanced those populations with districts 1, 4 and 5.

“The 2000 census count had 8,414 people in District 2,” George said. “Under the new plan that number goes to 9,743 and from 9,274 in District 3 to 9,890,” he said.

Forty percent of Warren County’s population are minority citizens and since 1980, districts 2 and 3 have had black majority populations. Those balances were preserved, even though the districts were enlarged.

“We had to offset that exodus from those districts, and we had to do so by moving population from District 5 into District 1,” George said, “so District 1 could move into an area in District 2.”

The 2000 Census shows Warren County’s population grew from 47,880 in 1990, to 49,644 in 2000.

Under the Constitution, political subdivisions, including counties, must adjust district lines after every census to balance district-to-district population. Under the Voting Rights Act, Mississippi and 15 other states must also receive federal approval for voting-related change to guard against changes that would dilute minority voting strength.

George said the need for redistricting was because the top-to-bottom population variance was 25.31 percent, which exceeded the ideal guideline of a 10 percent top-to-bottom variance for all districts.

The plan approved has populations in each district within 5.27 percent of each other.

The maps were approved after a series of public hearings at which multiple proposals were aired. The vote on the five-district plan was 3-2 with District 2’s Michael Mayfield and District 3’s Charles Selmon in opposition.