Historical February–March 2021 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
MAPMAKING IN 2021- Every ten years, we count every resident in the United States. Last year’s count was fraught with challenges from the pandemic to President Trump’s attempt to exclude undocumented residents.
The total numbers matter when it comes to doling out federal funds and drawing political boundaries.
In the case of St. Louis, we can assume that our total population has declined yet again.
While parts of the city are seeing growth, we are still losing population overall as people shift to other parts of the region because of crime or schools. St. Louis is currently divided into 28 wards with approximately 11,000 people apiece.
In 2012, the voters approved a measure to reduce the number of wards to 14.
This task must be completed by December 31, 2021. By law, wards must be roughly equal in population and be compact and contiguous.
The Voting Rights Act also ensures that minority voting power is not diluted by spreading it amongst many wards without having a majority in one or concentrated so much that redistricting results in a disproportionate number of wards for the minority group. Other considerations include neighborhood cohesion and the percentage of population who are of voting age.
All of these factors are essential to fair and just representation. Redistricting in St. Louis is a political and legislative act of the Board of Aldermen.
A map has to get at least 15 votes to be approved and then it goes to the Mayor.
As the city’s population has shrunk over the decades, accounting for all of the necessary factors has gotten trickier. Fortunately, technology and the internet have given us a wealth of tools to compute and plot lines that comply with these factors.
In the past, alderpersons have gathered around one shared computer with proprietary software to click and drag lines around to their liking and then shared it with the public.
In the absence of an independent demographer to draw the lines, it will be up to the citizens of St. Louis to hold the Board accountable for a fair and just map and they can do so by taking advantage of the tools now available.
There have been several attempts to put redistricting in the hands of an independent demographer or citizens’ commission.
We voted to do this for the State of Missouri a few years ago with the proposition known as CLEAN Missouri. It’s still possible that St. Louis will adopt a similar measure in time but if not, it’s important for citizens to pay attention to ensure that their voice and their vote is preserved in the next redistricting.
This is the first of a series of pieces on ward reduction so stay tuned for more on the benefits of ward reduction and how we make the transition to 14.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2021.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2021_02.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
