Athens — Redrawing Henderson County political boundaries while conforming with federal “one man, one vote” requirements is proving to be a challenge.

The Henderson County Redistricting Advisory Committee is charged with exploring the possibility of drawing new lines for Commissioners’ Precincts, voting boxes and precincts for the Justices of the Peace.

Robert Bass of Allison, Bass and Associates, the firm hired to help the county through the redistricting process, said the process begins with commissioners’ precinct boundaries and filters down.

“Changes in Commissioners Court precincts will require modification of election precincts making up each Commissioners Court precinct,” Bass said. “There will also be changes in the Justice of the Peace/Constable precincts as a result of these changes to the election precincts.”

    Any changes suggested by the committee, and approved by commissioners court will have to be submitted for review and preclearance. The goal is to get that done before the 2012 election cycle begins next January.

Commissioner Ronny Lawrence’s Precinct 3 has the largest population. That number, excluding jail inmates, was  20,139.

Precinct 1 Commissioner Joe Hall has just 18,864 constituents. The deviation from the population of the smallest to the largest precinct is 6.52 percent. If that deviation had been 10 percent, the county would have been required by law to redraw the lines.

Lawrence said if the current growth in Precinct 3 continues, then the county’s deviation could well exceed 10 percent before the 2020 census.

Bass said balancing the population between the two precincts is difficult. Their boundaries do not touch, which means any effort to equalize their populations would mean redesigning the boundary of at least one of the other precincts as well.

Changes must also be made without diluting minority representation within the precincts.  Of the voters in Lawrence’s precinct, 14,846 are white, 1,806 black and 3,078 Hispanic. The second strongest minority representation is in Ken Geeslin’s Precinct 4. Of the 19,701 residents, 15,348 are white, 1,805 black and 2,101 Hispanic.

For Lawrence and Precinct 2 Commissioner Wade McKinney  this is their second trip through the redistricting process. The last census brought major changes because of the rapid growth of McKinney’s precinct between 1990 and 2000. The map was completed that year with a portion of Precinct 1 being shifted to Precinct 4 to somewhat equalize the miles of roadway maintained by the commissioners.