Fairness goal, redistricting coordinator says

Panel hears Arkansans’ suggestions, complaints about Senate districts

Representatives of the Arkansas Board of Apportionment, in their second redistricting hearing, heard Tuesday evening from several audience members who sought changes to area Senate districts.

Betty Dickey, coordinator of the Board of Apportionment and former Arkansas Supreme Court chief justice, told those who attended the hearing held at Arkansas State University in Mountain Home the goal of the committee is to avoid gerrymandering, targeting and preferential treatment of one party or the other.

“Our goal is to follow the criteria that we are operating under,” she said after a comment about redrawing state legislative districts into more sensible shapes. The board’s job is to redraw legislative districts every 10 years, using federal census data to ensure each district has roughly the same population.

Bob Largent, a resident of Harrison in Boone County and the president and CEO of the Harrison Regional Chamber of Commerce, asked that the board establish a state Senate district that encompasses Boone, Carroll, Newton, Searcy and part of Marion counties.

Largent called the area the “Hub of the Ozarks” and mentioned how these counties have commonalities, including tourism on the Buffalo National River, businesses, retail and the North Arkansas Regional Medical Center and North Arkansas College, both in Harrison.

“While each county has its own geographical features and business personalities, they share much in common,” he said.

Largent said the five north Arkansas counties are served by four senators — Bob Ballinger of Ozark, Breanne Davis of Russellville, Scott Flippo of Mountain Home and Missy Irvin of Mountain View — but felt a more focused representation was needed for the continued economic growth of the area.

“These commonalities are very unique and we ask consideration for a Senate district that encompasses those five counties,” he said.

Wylaine Korbelik, a Jordan resident in Baxter County, said at the meeting that all of Baxter County needs to be one district because her current representative, John Payton of Wilburn, lives roughly 75 miles away and is unable to communicate the needs of her city. She said Payton’s district is mostly rural while Jordan should be considered more of an urban area.

“We need to be in with the rest of Baxter County and have Mountain Home represent us,” she said. “We aren’t getting fair representation because we aren’t a rural area, we are more of a city. Please do something to fix this.”

Canda Reese, county and circuit clerk for Baxter County, also spoke at the meeting about how she hopes the board can avoid splitting up precincts.

Dickey said she understood the stress clerks across the state were under from the late arrival of U.S. census data and that the board would keep this in mind.

Census officials indicated earlier this year that the data wouldn’t be delivered to all states until Sept. 30.

However, Shelby Johnson, state geographic information officer for the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems office, said Ohio filed a lawsuit requesting earlier delivery of the information and, as part of a settlement, census officials agreed to make the data available using an older format to expedite the process.

States should have the data by the end of August, but Johnson previously said because of an expected processing bottleneck related to using the older format, Arkansas officials anticipate it will take until mid-September to get the information.

The board is using annual county estimates by the Census Bureau to make estimates on redistricting. He said his office is also using a nine-year population change map.

“We need to be in with the rest of Baxter County and have Mountain Home represent us. We aren’t getting fair representation because we aren’t a rural area, we are more of a city. Please do something to fix this.”

— Wylaine Korbelik, a Jordan resident in Baxter County