New voting districts proposed
Published 10:46 am Wednesday, May 29, 2013
There was no discussion from the floor Tuesday during a public hearing held at Atmore City Hall in order to get input from the public concerning possible changes to voting districts in town.
Although the proposed changes will not be voted on until the city council’s next meeting, on June 10, Diane Burnett with the South Alabama Regional Planning Commission was on hand to answer questions.
“Redistricting is part of the Voting Rights Act,” Burnett said. “After the census we had to do a study to determine whether the city of Atmore was in compliance. It was not, so we had to change some district lines.”
Burnett said the changes, if approved, are minimal and are being proposed in order to bring the districts to within the needed two percent population ratio to one another. Currently, Burnett said Atmore’s number were around five percent, slightly higher than what is allowed.
Changes to current districts include the inclusion of Rivercane and surrounding rural areas into District 3; the inclusion of Atmore Municipal Airport into District 1; a portion of District 5 that will become part of District 2; a portion of District 1 that will become part of District 4; two portions of District 5 that will become parts of District 2 and District 4, respectively.