Commissioners move forward with redistricting
The Hays County Commissioners Court plans to move ahead with the county redistricting process following a presentation and discussion surrounding the initial assessment of Hays County for purposes of redistricting evaluation and its political boundaries.
Bob Bass of Allison, Bass, Magee, LLP presented the court with documents and a presentation during Tuesday’s meeting, which contained data from the U.S. Census Bureau in relation to the county precincts.
According to the assessment, Precinct 1 is overpopulated by 364 (.016%), Precinct 2 is overpopulated by 12,787 (21.22%), Precinct 3 is underpopulated by 13,907 (23.08%) and Precinct 4 is overpopulated by 775 (1.25%).
To determine whether or not the county is legally obligated to redraw boundar From that total, 50.33% of the population is of legal voting age.
Bass also explained that the county had the choice of including the correctional facility population in the voting process due to jails and prisons in the county receiving some governmental assistance.
The court would later agree to include those in the county jail population.
The assessment concluded that precincts 2 and 3 have the most disparities due to having no common boundaries. Demographic analysis pages were presented and broke down ethnicities within each precinct.
“It suggests that minority voters have at least an influence ability on elections,” Bass said.
Due to the growth of the county, there is an expectancy of larger populations in each precinct.
“We try to not disenfranchise an incumbent by moving the boundaries in such a way that they no longer represent people who elected them to office,” Bass said. “It takes time for people to earn and learn the ropes and how to be an effective leader in an elected office and it seems a waste of talent and training and effort to disenfranchise those incumbents.”
County residents voiced their opinion regarding the redistricting process during the meeting, emphasizing the importance of citizen input.
“[Hays County is] a very fast growing area, it needs its resources, it needs its voice,” said Susan Raybuck, Wimberley resident. “People here should have the opportunity to speak whether they are members of whatever ethnicity it is their right as a citizen of this country to be heard, to have the ability to affect the process of government, it should be a fair process.”
After the presentation, Hays County chairs of the Democratic and Republican parties were invited to speak. “My pledge is to make this a smooth process to make it an all inclusive process and by all means to protect the vote of every citizen in Hays County,” said Bob Parks, Hays County Republican Party chair
Mark Trahan, chair of the Hays County Democratic Party emphasized the importance of the community’s voice in regard to redistricting.
“I want to encourage again and just reiterate the importance of the public input and the transparency in this process,” Trahan said. “It’s important to set the stage around this as a conversation and so I want to encourage us to continue to consider that.”
To view the full discussion and presentation, visit hayscountytx.com/commissioners-court/court-video/.
