COUNTY TO REDRAW PCT. BOUNDARIES

WAXAHACHIE – Ellis County Commissioners Court recently held a special meeting for a presentation by the Ellis County Redistricting Committee of Resolution recommending redrawing commissioner precinct boundaries based on the 2020 Census.

Another item on the Wednesday, Oct. 27 agenda was a presentation which recommended redrawing justice of the peace and constable precinct boundaries based on the 2020 Census.

The county has added 42,000 residents since 2010, according to last year’s census. It now has 192,000 residents.

Due to the increase in population, officials are redrawing the four commissioner boundaries which will impact citizens in the county.

“The 2020 Census revealed population imbalance between the precincts because some areas have experienced more development than others over the last decade,” Ellis County Judge Todd Little said last week in a statement.

The imbalance precipitated the creation of the Ellis County Redistricting Committee who worked alongside the county’s legal partners to equalize the precinct populations based on the new census data.

“I think it’s important that we honor the work done for us by the citizens committee in consultation with our outside counsel,” said Precinct 3 County Commissioner Paul Perry, whose district has grown immensely in the past 10 years. “Our outside counsel specializes in redistricting issues.

One of the alternatives offered for commissioner precincts is acceptable to me.”

“One of the JP and constable precinct plans agreed to by those officeholders and considered by the committee is acceptable to me, as well,” Perry said.

There were two maps that resulted from the redistricting meetings. Both were presented at the special meeting with residents voicing their concerns about the map boundaries and the fact that the audience in attendance could not more easily see the maps outlining the proposed changes.

Map A deviates by 9.76% from the current benchmark lines the commissioners are currently serving. Map B deviates 5.4% from the current benchmark lines.

While it was noted that neither map has an issue with the “equity of population makeup” some who spoke in the audience commented on the difference in the small section of land that is currently in Precinct 4 but being drawn into Precinct 3.

Map B keeps a small section of land owned by Louis Ponder in its current Precinct 4 boundary. Ponder owns a 40-acre tract of land in Midlothian between Mt. Zion and Plainview Road. Ponder’s homestead and his family have owned the property for more than 120 years.

Ponder said he ran the petition to stop forced annexation in Ellis County in 2018, which put a proposition on the ballot in May 2019 that would end forced annexation within the county. Ponder added HB347 also passed and was signed by Gov. Greg Abbott to ban forced annexation statewide.

Ponder said he has been approached by Ellis County residents asking him to run for Precinct 4

County Commissioner. Kyle Butler serves as the precinct’s commissioner.

Ponder believes the deviation in the precinct boundaries and his property being moved to another precinct has everything to do with his decision to run for a seat against Butler.

“Fast forward to last week when the commissioner appointed public committee for redistricting created these two maps,” Ponder said. “Map B was actually the first map and we thought the only map. As testified by one of the speakers at the Wednesday, Oct. 27 redistricting workshop, it seems Butler’s citizen appointee read from a sheet of paper, purportedly from Butler, the boundaries needed to draw me out of his precinct and into precinct three,” he said.

“That is how the second map, Map A, was created. Butler confirmed the draw out but claimed it was about roads, not the potential political threat that could take his seat as commissioner,” Ponder said.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the original requirement of the 1965 Voting Rights Act that southern states obtain federal preclearance of their redistricting plans. After the 2020 Census, this year’s redistricting effort will be the first time in 56 years that Texas jurisdictions will be able to implement major redistricting plans without federal oversight.

“We need to recognize that Americans are equal before the law and we should draw precincts based upon population and a need for services in an area,” Perry said. “One proposed plan should be under consideration and passed by commissioners’ court on Tuesday, [Nov. 2].”