Redistricting Resources

From Sussex County's Past Redistricting Cycles

It's important to note that:

1) the Council, itself, is the authority that draws the boundaries, not the General Assembly.

2) the Council establishes parameters for what they would like to see. Last go-round, they wanted at least three districts to touch the bay or ocean. Thus, they do not proceed with 'hands off" reliance on experts.

3) alternative plans are possible to develop. The League of Women Voters submitted such a plan last time. It would be good to speak with the persons responsible for developing that plan.

4) boundaries developed for legislative districts in the General Assembly will subtly influence the county district boundaries. It would be wise to be attentive to that process, as well and work with the party leaders.

At the earliest, redistricting of Sussex County Council seats will begin August/September 2021. Ordinarily census data becomes available in March of the year following the census, but because of the pandemic, the census data will not be available until July 31, 2021. Although the General Assembly plays no direct role in the drawing of county council districts, Sussex County Council has waited, in the past, until the legislative districts have been drawn to avoid confusion in drawing up the election districts, the smaller, administrative units within which voting occurs at the local level. This is likely to delay the process even later.

In the past, Sussex County Council has asked the county attorney to head up the redistricting effort. In turn, the county attorney hired an outside specialist to assist with the process. The specialist met with the council once or twice in advance to find out how they envisioned the process to unfold. He would then put together several drafts of a redistricting plan and go back to them for feedback. Depending on their feedback, he would draft a final plan. (The county attorney is J. Everett Moore of the Moore & Rutt law firm. It is likely that Ryan Adams, a junior member of the firm, will play some role this go-round since he assisted in 2011.)

Once the Council completed a proposed redistricting plan, it was presented to the public. Members of the public also had an opportunity to submit plans of their own with the proviso that such plans had to comply with basic parameters established by law and court decisions, i.e., equal population within plus or minus five percent; compact, contiguous districts; creating minority majority districts or minority influence districts if possible, etc. [Because of population distribution in Sussex, the minority majority issue did not play into councilmanic redistricting though it was relevant for legislative redistricting.] An effort was also made to avoid dividing incorporated towns into two or more parts, although this was not always possible. There were one or more public hearings on the plan. In some cases, adjustments were made to the proposed plan based on feedback from the public.

Outside groups are also able to submit plans. In 2011, the only outside plan came from the League of Women Voters, but it failed to meet a number of the required parameters. Developing alternative plans will be easier to do in 2021-22. It is now much easier for members of the public to get access to redistricting software. Several organizations are offering it for free online. Since most people are only interested in their own districts, they may want to submit partial plans, which are of little use to those making redistricting decisions. Reportedly, the staff people in Delaware already involved with the early stages of legislative redistricting are recommending to legislators that they establish a rule that anyone who wishes to submit a plan should be required to submit a complete plan. Because of this significant digital change, the process this time around, both at the legislative and councilmanic levels, is likely to involve more public input than has been the case in the past.

Prior to the last councilmanic redistricting, the council directed that three of the five councilmanic districts were to touch the ocean or bay coasts. In order to accomplish this, it was necessary to extend the southern-most district all the way across the county from the Maryland Line to the ocean. Because more of the geographic area of the resulting district was west of U.S. 113, the highway that runs more or less down the center of the county, there were loud protests from many coastal-area residents until it was made clear that, geography aside, substantially more of the district population lived in the coastal area than lived west of U.S. 113. Once the final plan has been agreed upon, the county council votes on a county ordinance containing a detailed boundary description of each of the five proposed councilmanic districts.

Whether the General Assembly and the county councils will be able to complete their work before the end of 2021 remains unclear. This could have an impact on General Assembly elections. There is a state law that legislative candidates must have resided in their districts for at least a year prior to the election, but under the circumstances it may be necessary to make some adjustments to that.