Halifax County commissioners Tuesday night approved new electoral district lines for the boundaries from which three board members are elected.

In his report to the board on the matter, County Attorney Glynn Rollins said a review of the 2020 Census data showed that there was a substantial inequality in the population among the three electoral districts. District 3, which is around the Roanoke Rapids area, is the smallest by geography but it had more population which the county needed to correct.

With the population of the county shown in the Census as 48,622, the ideal population of each district should be around 16,207, Rollins said.

As required by law, each of the electoral districts are composed of territory within a continuous boundary. In addition, a small triangular-shaped area was moved from District 2 to District 1 to maintain a new boundary on either side of Interstate 95.

This image serves as a key to the district photos included in the gallery which follows.

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“The committee believes that the resulting electoral district populations are as nearly equal as practicable,” the report said. 

The report continued: “Although the primary goal of electoral district boundary redefinition is to equalize the population of the districts, the committee was also sensitive to the historical significance of … litigation and settlement that resulted in the creation of our three single-member commissioner electoral districts.”

Rollins told the board that the committee he chaired which tackled the matter found that the population of each district is nearly equal. “The variance in population as proposed is less than three-tenths of a percent, four-tenths of a percent at most between the three districts and that’s as close as you’re ever going to get.”

The three districts were created as a result of legal action that was taken in 1985. As the settlement to these lawsuits the commissioner districts were created.

Linda Brewer represents District 3, John Smith District 2, and Carolyn Johnson District 1.

There was virtually no change in the racial, ethnic data by district, which Rollins said pleased the committee “because we did want to see any substantial change in the districts with respect to race or ethnicity.”

Rollins said he was pleased with the work of the committee and included county Tax and GIS Coordinator Doris Hawkins, Assistant County Manager Christina Wells and commissioners Johnson and Rives Manning. “I especially want to thank Doris Hawkins. Without her help I don’t think I could have ever figured out where all these numbers were. She definitely had this ready for us and it made our job much easier.”

Board Chair Vernon Bryant also thanked Rollins and the other members of the committee “for such hard work and such a great job.”