New Voting Districts Attract Minimal Voter Input

Former chairman of the Missouri House budget committee Allen Icet, a Wildwood resident, described Monday how reapportionment of voters into St. Louis County districts likely will come down to a partisan debate between Republicans and Democrats.

Icet, a Republican, co-chairs the county's 14-member Reapportionment Commission, which is by late November.

Democrat Don Calloway is the other co-chair, and was not present at Monday's gathering. The commission consists of two people from each district, one Democrat and one Republican.

In terms of the process, Icet said the two parties likely will caucus separately, then Icet and Calloway would come to the table with several rough plans apiece, and hammer it out from there.

"None of us have done this before, we are new to this," Icet said, referring specifically to redistricting.

Icet served in the state house of representatives in the 2000s, and then lost a 2010 primary race to state auditor Tom Schweich.

The majority of the commission who showed up Monday for the meeting said they had served as elected officials in state and city governments.

The reason for the redrawing of the map is that the 2010 Census showed four of the county's seven districts losing voters while .

County Planner Bill Schwulst said the population shift west is a 30-year trend here.

Each of the seven districts is required to be somewhat evenly populated, with an estimated 142,500 each indicated on a county map.

Monday's meeting lasted 20 minutes, with two speakers from the public at large. The first presentation in Clayton a week ago had only one speaker.

John Judd, a resident of District 6 (South County) said since his district had to lose about 2,913 voters, the northeastern boundary of the current district should simply follow Gravois Road, instead of jogging north to the St. Louis City boundary.

Judd also said he looked for North County districts to be more racially balanced, naming specifically "African-Americans."

Maryland Heights Republican Committeeman Tom Wilsdon also addressed the commission Monday, saying his subdivision had been split in half in District 3, and he didn't like it.

Voting districts must be "compact and contiguous," Wilsdon said, referring to legal standards.

Wilsdon also said he believed County districts should follow main thoroughfares radiating out from St. Louis "like the spokes of a wheel." He said "that's the way it has always been," naming Olive and Manchester roads as examples.

In 2000, reapportionment of statewide districts led to a court decision after a commission could not come to consensus on a map during a reasonable time.

"We hope to finalize our decision by early November," Icet said during Monday's presentation. "We have a statutory deadline of Thanksgiving."

Wilsdon said the county commission would need 8 of 14 votes for a draft, and likely 9 of 14 votes for final approval—slightly more than a two-thirds majority.

A third presentation is planned for Monday, at 7 p.m. at University of Missouri St. Louis campus in the J.C. Penney building.

Over the course of U.S. history, cases of gerrymandering have come into play, when districts were intentionally divided in a way that gives one faction an unfair voting advantage over others.