F
County updates districts map
5/9/2008 | Today's Georgetown Times Online Edition
Published on 3/27/2008
* Changes will be used for School Board elections
By Tommy Howard
thoward@gtowntimes.com
Just routine, but it can make a difference.
That's the upshot of a "housekeeping" update to the Georgetown County Council District Map given second reading approval Tuesday night.
Every 10 years the United States conducts a census of the population. About a year later, all sorts of governing bodies have to revise/redraw their district boundaries to reflect population changes.
Back in 2001 when that was done, there was a small discrepancy of about 100 people in the statistics for County Council Districts 2 and 7.
Current Council members for those districts are Ron Charlton in District 2 and Johnny Morant in District 7.
When the U.S. Census was conducted in 2000, if found that Georgetown County's population was 55,797 people. The target number for each of the seven Council districts was 7,979 people. A small variation is allowed among the districts where their boundaries are considered to be in compliance with voting requirements set by the U.S. Congress and implemented by the U.S. Justice Department.
Georgetown County Attorney Wes Bryant told Council members Tuesday night the discrepancy came to light as the Georgetown County School District faced a lawsuit from the U.S. Justice Department over its election methods.
"After you approve it we will have to send it to the Department of Justice," Bryant said. "They have assured me they can expedite it."
The difference was where the line ran on a map between Districts 2 and 7 on the Georgetown side of the Black and Pee Dee rivers, Bryant said. "In effect, it put about 100 black voters in a different district. However, nobody's vote was changed. It was in the demographics, not in the actual voting."
The School District and Justice Department have reached an agreement to use County Council District lines for seven of the nine seats on the School Board. As previously reported, the agreement states that current members Jim Dumm and Bennie Elliott will serve as at-large members and will face election in 2010.
For the remaining seven numbered seats, they will all be up for election this November. Filing for those seats will be done with the Georgetown County Board of Voter Registration and Elections. Filing will begin at noon on Friday, Aug. 1 and end at noon on Friday, Aug. 15.
It's important for the districts to be accurately drawn because where the boundary lines are affect voters and candidates alike.
Austin Beard, one of three candidates so far for the County Council District 5 seat, notes that his neighbor across the street from him in Andrews cannot vote for him in the special election in June or the primary or general election. Beard lives at the edge of District 5 and his across-the-street neighbor lives at the edge of District 3.
Likewise, several current members of the School Board live within the same districts so they will face one another in the non-partisan election in November.
The map shown here is one provided to County Council to reflect boundaries for districts.
The Georgetown Times graphics department has added colors to better show areas of the county, and has labeled highways and communities to help people better understand where the boundaries are.
Those boundaries will be considered for third and final reading approval at the Georgetown County Council meeting on April 8. There is a large-scale map available at the Elections Office at 303 Hazard St. in Georgetown, if people need to see specifically the district where they live.
