Lewis County voter district lines to be redrawn

It is time for Tennessee's voting districts to be redrawn, and that means Lewis County is going to have some changes. The Redistricting Committee met with CTAS representatives at 6:30 on Monday night in the courtroom.

This year's Redistricting Committee consists of County Commissioners Kyle Bobo, Brian Peery and the chair of the committee, Austin Carroll. County Mayor Jonah Keltner was also present for the meeting.

"You guys are going to be like architects and I'm going to be the builder," said Melisa Kelton, CTAS Representative. "So you will tell me where you'd like the lines to be drawn and I'll give you advice on what to keep your eye on, which districts need help, and help you draw those lines based on census blocks."

Census blocks are typically formed by following visible features such as a highway, street, railroad and even creeks. This is why people on the left side of a road could be in one district and the right side in another.

Voting districts are based off of the county's population as determined by the census. The goal is to have a certain amount of people in each district so that the population is evenly distributed when it comes time to vote. For each county, a district's ideal distribution is calculated by the county's population divided by its number of commissioners to get the ideal population per commissioner. Then the district's ideal population is found by multiplying the previous total by the number of commissioners in the district. For Lewis County, the ideal population in each district would be 1,398. However, it is almost impossible to hit that number exactly. So then the ideal number is within a certain percentage of the ideal population.

Kelton then told the committee that the districts that are in the most need of attention are Districts One, Five and Seven. Others that need work, but not as much, are Districts Six, Eight and Nine.

The committee quickly found out that once you adjust one district, it immediately impacts those surrounding it, creating the potential for a big change in district lines. This can potentially affect whether commissioners will be in their current districts or if they will have to run in another, and which districts school board members are in.

Once the two-hour meeting was done, it became clear that Lewis County will not be redistricted so easily.