City Redestricting Sent to Justice Dept.

One more hurdle remains for Fredericksburg's recently approved local redistricting plans before they are official. On Tuesday, the city sent a copy of its redistricting materials to the U.S. Justice Department for its preclearance review.

According to the Civil Rights Act, localities in states with a history of suppressing minority voters must have all changes to electoral procedures approved by the Justice Department through a process called preclearance. The oversight can take up to 60 days to be approved.

Every 10 years, following the national Census, localities and governments in Virginia (and across the nation, for that matter) must redraw their ward or district boundaries.

The new map, dubbed Redistricting Option 2B, attempts to rebalance the populations among the city's four council wards. By law, wards are supposed to have as equal a distribution as is reasonably possible.

Growth in the western half of the city over the last decade bloated the population living in Ward 1, represented by Councilor Brad Ellis. According to Census 2010 data, Ward 1 had a population of 8,319, compared to the other three wards which had populations between 5,000 and 5,500.

Fredericksburg's total population at the 2010 Census is 24,286. In an ideal world, each ward would contain 6,072 people. Ward 1's population had deviated just a hair more than 37 percent over the ideal, far outside the plus or minus five percent allowed by law.

Option 2B rebalances the ward populations so that, according to 2010 Census numbers, no ward is more than 2 percent more populous than any other.

The materials submitted to the Justice Department can be viewed on Fredericksburg's 2011 Redistricting Process website.

Fredericksburg residents can send comments on the redistricting plan to the Justice Department by mailing to the following address: Chief, Voting Section, Civil Rights Division, Room 7254 - NWB, Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D. C. 20530.

"Comments by individuals or groups concerning changes affecting voting may be sent at any time," reads a notice posted to the city's website. "However, individuals and groups are encouraged to comment as soon as they learn of the changes."