Title
Chief Administrative Office recommending the Board receive information on the 2021 Redistricting process and if necessary, provide direction to staff on whether to appoint a Board ad-hoc committee or independent commission.
FUNDING: General Fund.
Body
DISCUSSION/BACKGROUND
The United States Constitution requires a count every ten (10) years of everyone residing in the United States. Census data is used for geographically defining state legislative districts in the year following a census.
At the conclusion of each United States of America Census process, the County must conduct a process to analyze population data in order to redraw district boundaries to ensure that districts are substantially equal in population as required by the United States Constitution and in compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965.
In doing so, the County must consider the following factors in order of priority:
1. Geographic contiguity
2. Geographic integrity of any local neighborhood or local communities of interest.
3. Geographic integrity of any cities or census-designated places.
4. Easily identifiable and understandable districts bound by natural and artificial barriers, including streets and boundaries of the county when practicable.
5. Encouraging geographical compactness so that nearby areas of population are not bypassed in favor of more distant populations.
The Elections Code also specifies that the Board shall not adopt supervisorial district boundaries for the purpose of favoring or discriminating against a political party. Additional criteria can be considered, as long as they are not in conflict with or outweigh the criteria required by the State and Federal laws.
In order to meet these requirements, the County undergoes a process to redistrict following the conclusion of each Census. The 2010 Census data indicated that El Dorado County grew by nearly 25,000 residents from 2000 to 2010 and that the growth was spread disproportionately across sup...
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