Collin County Commissioners plow ahead with redistricting

by Bill Baumbach of The Collin County Observer

For six months now, the Collin County commissioners have discussed redrawing their own precincts (districts).

Once again, they are scheduled to discuss 12 different precinct maps at the Monday morning commissioners court session. It is possible they will adopt a new plan at the meeting.

Redistricting is traditionally done in the year following the decennial census. By that schedule, the court would redraw their precinct boundaries in 2011. But, citing the current population disparities, they don't want to wait. Instead, they want to use "home grown" statistical estimates of the current population as the data defining the redistricted precincts.

They know they'll likely have to do it all over again in two years, when the Federal Census data becomes available. Ignoring over 230 years of constitutional president, and their own party's platform, they maintain that their statistically generated data is probably more accurate than the U.S. Census enumerated counts.

Besides the difficulties caused by using estimated statistical data, the commissioners court has also puttered with these plans so long that now they find themselves redrawing precinct boundaries during a campaign season.

Now at least one commissioner can vote to approve a map that would automatically disqualify his primary opponents.

Commissioner Jerry Hoagland faces two likely opponents in the 2009 Republican Primary. Both perennial candidate Karl Voigtsberger and former Plano City Councilwoman Cheryl Williams have indicated that they plan to file to run against Hoagland -- both live in Richardson's precinct 48. Of the 12 possible redistricting scenarios to be voted on (PDF), three (numbers 1, 2, and 7) move precinct 48 out of Commissioner Hoagland's district.

It would seem that the court has put itself in an enviable position (at least from their point of view) -- they not only get to draw their own districts, they get to make up the numbers used to draw them, AND they get to legislatively choose or disqualify their rivals.

While the incumbent commissioners might like the redistricting idea, it is hard to see that doing so serves the interests of democracy or the Collin County voter.