According to the 2020 census, Kosciusko now has a population of 7,114, showing a decrease of 288 citizens since the 2010 census last decade.
Mike Slaughter, representing Slaughter and Associates — an urban planning firm based in Oxford — spoke to the board of aldermen concerning redistricting requirements and services his firm could provide the city.
The U.S. Department of Justice requires an equal distribution of the total population among election districts. With four districts and an alderman-at-large, equal distribution works on a one-person, one-vote principle, meaning individuals should have equal voting representation.
Slaughter provided an example of what an imbalance may look like within the districts.
“You have, in round numbers, about 7,100 people inside the city. If you put all of those people into one ward except for, let's say 75, and you put 25 in the other three wards, those 25 people would have the same voice on this board as the other 7000 people,” Slaughter told the aldermen. “That's an extreme example of an imbalance as far as a one-person, one-vote principle.”
Then, Slaughter explained what his firm could do to help the city of Kosciusko maintain equal voting representation.
“There is sort of a 10% rule when it comes to cities the size of Kosciusko. So, what we do is take the population — which is about 7,100 according to the latest census,” said Slaughter. “We divide that by four, and that gives us our ideal population of 1,778, the ideal population per ward. We take that ideal, and then we run what we call a benchmark plan.”
The benchmark plan would take numbers from the 2020 census block data, acknowledge the city’s current election districts, and would calculate the percent difference between the ideal population of the largest-populated ward and its actual population. Slaughter said the percent difference should be less than five percent. The percent difference between the ideal population and the population of the smallest-populated ward should also be five percent or less. When adding the two together, the difference should be 10% or less.
“That gets you in balance and sort of satisfies that requirement of the one-person, one-vote principle,” said Slaughter.
The consultant said executing a benchmark plan is the first step to determining whether or not the city needs to redistrict its wards. The benchmark plan would calculate the minority population and racial compositions and determine whether or not the wards are out-of-balance. It would also ensure there is no racially discriminatory purpose or effect to redistricting and would not make minority voters worse off than they were prior to the change, in accordance with Section Five of the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Department of Justice.
When comparing the city’s racial composition between 2010 and 2020, according to census.gov, the Black population increased from 53.9% to 56.6%. The White alone population decreased from 43.8% to 37.7%, and the Hispanic or Latino community decreased from 0.2% to 0.02%. The percentage of individuals of two or more races decreased from 1.7% to 0.03%.
After the benchmark plan, Slaughter said the firm would recommend the aldermen provide awareness to and seek input from the community since redistricting could shift individuals from one ward to another and change who their representative in city government would be going forward.
While admitting he is a planner and not a lawyer providing legal advice, Slaughter said the sooner it can be completed, the better.
“Let's just assume that you're out of balance and one of the aldermen either moves out-of-town, moves to a different ward, or whatever, and you have to have a special election. You never know when something like this is going to happen,” he said. “So, you want to have your wards in balance. The other reason would be, the sooner you have any changes made, these people will know who their alderman is, have someone to call, and then when the elections roll around, they can decide whether they want to vote for them or not.”
According to Slaughter, additional standards the firm aims to employ are to incorporate public input, concerns, and questions; avoid redistricting elected officials out of their current districts; to effectuate the least amount of change of existing boundaries; and to avoid moving groups of strong constituencies out of a particular district.
