NATCHEZ, Miss. – Adams County’s five supervisors are reviewing maps for redrawing their districts as they prepare for the 2023 elections.
A political mapping expert presented them population numbers Monday showing political borders need to be changed in four districts because they’re imbalanced. Districts need to be realigned to reflect population changes and ensure they have about the same number of people, as required by law.
Toby Sanford noted county Supervisor Kevin Wilson’s District 2 and Supervisor Warren Gaines’ District 5 have too many people and Supervisor Angela Hutchins’ District 3 and Supervisor Ricky Gray’s District 4 have too few.
Sanford said efforts will be made to ensure as few changes as possible to the current district lines. Supervisors should have them redrawn with his help by the end of October in advance of next year’s elections.
“I want to make this as painless as possible,” but “y’all need to get this behind you,” Sanford told the supervisors.
After reconfiguring the Adams County districts, a public hearing will be held to present the new maps and get feedback from those interested.
There’s a March 1 deadline for candidates to file to run in next August’s party primaries and the November 2023 general election.
The 2020 census shows Adams County’s population has declined since 2010 by nearly 2,800 people – down to about 29,500. This includes about 900 people incarcerated in 2020 at the CoreCivic private prison in Adams County.
With those inmates taken out of the population count, each Adams County supervisor’s district should have about 5,700 people to ensure they’re properly apportioned.
Hutchins’ district is about 400 people below the ideal number needed to ensure it’s nearly equal in population with the four other districts, according to Sanford. Gray’s district is about 300 below.
The districts currently represented by Wilson and Gaines are each 400 or so above the number of people they should have. The realignment would require Adams County residents being taken out of their districts while more voters are put in the precincts assigned to Hutchins and Gray.
Sanford noted Supervisor Wes Middleton’s District 1 is only about 200 above the optimal amount of people and wouldn’t require much shifting of population.
Three of Adams County’s supervisory districts are predominantly Black while two are mostly White.
Sanford, who works for the Starkville-based Golden Triangle Planning and Development District, said he’ll meet with supervisors in the coming weeks to sketch out various mapping options before a final plan is adopted.
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