[05/25/01] The reslicing of Warren County into districts for supervisor, school board, justice court and constable districts has begun with supervisors commissioning the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District to devise a plan.

“We’ll have to make some adjustments,” Board of Supervisors President Richard George said. “We don’t know exactly how that will be done.”

As required by law, districts must be redrawn based on Census 2000 figures before county elections in 2003.

There are five supervisor districts that are also used for the five trustee positions on the Vicksburg Warren School District board and three districts for the county’s three justice court judges and constables. People elected to the jobs have to reside in the districts.

Criteria include balancing population of each district and complying with the Voting Rights Act by not diluting minority voting strength. The U.S. Justice Department must approved any voting-related changes in Mississippi.

George said census numbers show districts to be slightly over the 10 percent deviance allowed in population, but that there were some errors where census lines don’t match district lines. When made precise, the deviation may be corrected.

Bruce Reynolds, director of planning and management for CMPDD, said much time will be spent with maps. “We try to get as close as possible to the ideal,” he said.

With Warren County’s population officially at 49,644, each district would need to have close to 9,928 people to meet standards.

During the 1970s, Warren County went a full eight years without county district elections for failing to submit an plan federal officials or courts would approve. That litigation ended with creation of the present districts that have only been changed slightly since.

Forty percent of Warren County residents are minorities and two of the five districts have minority representation on the governing board. Also, two of the five school trustees are black and one justice court judge and one constable are black.

George said the Board of Supervisors and CMPDD should be ready to submit a plan to the Justice Department by December.

Before then, George said, the board and CMPDD will be holding public meetings in the fall to display draft plans.

The goal for having everything complete and approved is December 2002 because county elections will be held in August 2003.

“We’re not in a big hurry because we have two years, but we want to make sure everything is done in a timely manner,” Reynolds said.

Redistricting of state House and Senate seats and U.S. House districts is also under way using the new census figures.