Jefferson County
Jefferson County's council districts have a population deviation of 16%, which exceeds the maximum allowable deviation between the largest and smallest districts of 10%. In addition, District 3 cuts District 4 in half, thus also violating the requirement that all districts be contiguous.
- Overview
- Map
- Data
County Redistricting Overview
State law and state and federal court decisions require that local government districts be compact, contiguous, not cross precinct boundaries, and be as nearly equal in population as possible (usually with population deviation of less than 10%). To be in compliance, answers to each of the questions below should be "Yes".
Note: Other requirements regarding vote dilution and minority representation are not examined in this report.
Were the districts based on the 2000 census in compliance with state law? | Unknown | |
Did the county redistrict after the 2010 census? | Unknown | |
Is the population deviation of the current districts less than 10%? | No. It is 16%. | |
Are the current districts compact and contiguous? | No. District 3 cuts District 4 in half. | |
Is every precinct wholly contained within a single district? | Yes | |
Other comments: | Our 2000 map is missing the portion that now appears as the western part of District 4. Thus it is likely that Jefferson County was in violation after the 2000 census and did not redistrict in 2011. |
2010 Census Data
In 2012, we were able to determine exact populations for each county council district by identifying which precincts (as drawn in 2011 by each county) were in which county council district. We were able to calculate precinct populations using the 2010 census as long as precincts contained whole census blocks, which they are supposed to do.
District 1 | 8,335 | | | District 2 | 8,714 | | | District 3 | 7,930 | | | District 4 | 7,449 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Total Population | 32,428 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Average District Population | 8,107 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Population Deviation | 16% |
Population deviation is calculated by subtracting the smallest district from the largest district and dividing by the average district population. The maximum allowable deviation for local governments is 10%.