The redistricting team presented a new plan to the Huntsville City Council last night during the first of its regularly scheduled monthly meetings.

The goal of the Council meeting was to outline the new redistricting plan and set a path to achieve a “substantial equality of population among various districts” in order to maximize voting rights for Huntsville residents.

Redistricting: How it works and why it is important

The importance of the redistricting plan comes with the rapid growth and population increase in Huntsville after the 2020 census was released.

The redistricting process occurs every 10 years after a major census count takes place and helps with re-aligning each district within Huntsville to the standard of the Voting Rights Act, helping city leaders and officials reassess the number of residents in each district, and restructure the districts in order to uphold the goal of fair and balanced voting.

The City of Huntsville’s population grew 20% from last decade’s numbers, showing a total of 215,070 people split between five different districts.

Screen Shot 2021 10 15 at 08.02.43 In 2010, each district averaged a total of around 36,000 residents. The 2020 census showed the rapid growth of Huntsville with an average of 43,000 residents per district.

What this means in terms of redistricting is that all five districts grew, but not proportionally.

While the average per district is around 43,000 residents, some of the districts currently fall disproportionately larger than others. For example, the 2020 census showed that District 5 has around 52,000 residents, versus District 1 with just under 38,000 residents.

According to the Huntsville City Council, the goal of this cycle’s redistricting plan is to balance each district with a population deviation of no more or no less than 5%, focusing specifically on structuring each district so that they are around the average population of 43,000.

Get Involved!

There are a few ways that residents of the City of Huntsville can get involved.

One of the best ways is attending City Council meetings.

“To ensure transparency, the plan also includes public input received at town hall events held in each district in August and September,” said Connie Graham, leading member of Huntsville’s redistricting team.

According to Resolution No. 21-724 adopted on August 12, “In order to actively seek public participation and maximize public input, the Council will hold five (5) public hearings starting October and continuing through the end of November.

“These public hearings will focus on obtaining general concerns and comments from the public regarding current districts, characteristics desired to be changed and left unchanged, the locations of neighborhoods and communities of interest, criteria for public submission of plans, and any other general concerns of the public which should be considered by the Council in adoption of a redistricting plan.”

The five hearings will be held in the Huntsville City Council Chambers on the following dates:

Tuesday, Oct. 19, 4 p.m.
Monday, Oct. 25, 5:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 9, 1:30 p.m.
Tuesday, Nov. 16, 4 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 22, 5:30 p.m.

Another way to participate in the redistricting process is to submit your own plan, free of charge. The redistricting team also put together a tutorial to help anyone interested in creating and submitting a plan.

“I’m grateful to our redistricting team for their thorough research in developing this draft plan,” Mayor Tommy Battle said. “We look forward to hearing the community’s thoughts and ideas before Council approves a final plan in December.”

All comments and suggested plans need to be submitted before the final meetings in December. The Huntsville City Council will introduce the final plans on December 02 and vote to adopt a final plan on December 16.

Both of these meetings will begin at 5:30 and the City Council Chambers are located on the 1st floor at City Hall.

For more information, visit https://www.huntsvilleal.gov/census-2020/city-of-huntsville-redistricting-2021/