Redistricting Overview

Redistricting is the process of updating political boundaries to ensure areas of equal representation.

This is necessary when local population grows and shifts. The process will decide the boundaries of Knox County Commission and School Board districts.

Overview

Goals

Committee

Timeline

Why do we redistrict?

Representative governments depend upon equal districts to give everyone the same voting power. State law requires all county legislative bodies to evaluate their districts at least once every 10 years (TCA §5-1-111). This ensures each district within the county has approximately equal populations.

Redistricting Goals

One Person, One Vote

The concept of equal representation in voting. Each district’s commissioner represents an equal number of people when they vote on local matters.

Ideal Population

The target population for each district, found by dividing the total population for the county by the number of commission districts.

Deviation

The difference between a district’s ideal population and its actual population.

Overall Deviation

The range between the highest positive deviation and the lowest negative deviation – the goal in redistricting is to have an overall deviation less than 10%.

Population Preservation

If a racial/ethnic minority population comprises more than 50% of an existing district, any changes to that district must also have more than 50% minority population to preserve the ability to elect minority-preferred candidates.

Compactness

The measure of how regular or irregular a shape is – districts are required to be reasonably compact to prevent gerrymandering.

Knox County Redistricting Committee

The Committee concluded its work in October, 2021, recommending Plan 3B to Knox County Commission for adoption.

Chair Kyle Ward County Commission: District 4
Vice Chair Randy Smith County Commission: District 3

Richie Beeler County Commission: District 8
Justin Biggs County Commission: At Large
Charles Busler County Commission: District 7
Carson Dailey County Commission: District 9
Chris Davis Knox County Election Commission: Administrator of Elections
Courtney Durrett County Commission: District 2
Terry Hill County Commission: District 6
Kristi Kristy Chair of School Board: District 9
Larsen Jay County Commission: At Large
Dasha Lundy County Commission: District 1
John Schoonmaker County Commission: District 5

Project Timeline

2021

March

3/1
Redistricting Committee formation

May

5/1
Preliminary Geographic and Population Data released

June

6/1
Vote on Commission resolution to exclude non-voting prisoners

6/29
Redistricting plan and documents submitted to TN Comptroller's Office

August

8/12
Legacy Format data released by U.S. Census Bureau (8/12)

September

9/1
Redistricting Committee initial meeting (9/1, 5:30 p.m. CCB Main Assembly)

9/9
Meet and vote on proposed solutions (9/9, 5:00 p.m. CCB Small Assembly)

9/16
Meet and vote on proposed solutions (9/16, 5:00 p.m. CCB Small Assembly)

9/23
Meet and vote on proposed solutions (9/23, 5:00 p.m. CCB Small Assembly)

9/30
Final (PL94-171) data released by U.S. Census Bureau (9/30)

October

10/6
Meet and vote on proposed solutions (10/6, 5:00 p.m. CCB Small Assembly)

10/21
Special Session for First Reading (10/21 , 5 p.m., Small Assembly CCB)

10/28
Public Hearing and Special Session for Second Reading (10/28, 5 p.m., Small Assembly CCB)

November

11/3
Committee recommendation vote on Agenda (1st reading) - Agenda deadline November 3

11/4
Submit maps and final report to TN Comptroller

11/25
Committee recommendation vote on Agenda (2nd reading)

2022

January

1/1
TN State Comptroller redistricting deadline January 1

1/15
Complete work with Election Commission

3 results