I submitted this 2nd article as a “Letter to the Editor” to The Macon Telegraph at their web site on Friday, 27 Sept 2013. For whatever reason, they have not included it in their Viewpoints; I’m posting it here. Response to: Macon Bibb Elections Under the Microscope (September 14, 2013) Much has been printed and reported via local media about people being issued voter registration cards showing erroneous district assignments. There were also some reports of people given incorrect ballots on Election Day. St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway was created in 1991 by Dr. Donald Mack, a pediatric physician from Shreveport, Louisiana. Dr. Mack has relied on St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to treat young patients with catastrophic diseases and was the first doctor to send an out-of-state patient to St. Jude. The first St. Jude Dream Home was constructed in Shreveport, Louisiana, and raised $160,000 for the hospital. Since that first giveaway, the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway in Shreveport has become an annual fundraiser, raising more than $23 million for the hospital. Today, the St. Jude Dream Home Giveaway is one of the largest single-event fundraisers for St. Jude nationwide and has raised more than $260 million. Now, what is the relationship between the Macon Bibb County 9-District Commission Maps and these dream homes? Some architecture firm drew up blueprints (including interior designers to landscapers) for the dream houses that are raffled off in 15 states. These blueprints are handed off to general contractors who bring these blueprints to life. It would be hard pressed to think the architecture firm would not inspect the finished product (prior to contractors being paid) to insure the “physical” home is 100% IAW their design. There is pride in ownership; you’re proud to brag about your finished product (that is unless there is controversy surrounding that finished product). Now, let’s get back to the 9-district commissioners’ map for the newly consolidated Macon Bibb County government effective January 1, 2014. Questions are: 1. Who are the architects of the redrawn districts; in other words, who drew the district lines? A. Some background is required at this point. (1) As of this date, Bibb County and Macon’s governments are not consolidated. Bibb County has a Board of Commissioners consisting of four commissioners elected by the citizens residing within the districts they represent (Districts 1-4). The Chairman is elected county-wide and is the CEO of the County. The City of Macon is organized into 5 wards with 3 elected council people per ward, hence, giving Macon 15 councilmen/women who are elected by citizens who reside within the precinct within their ward. The Mayor is elected city-wide and is the CEO of the City. (2) In July 2012, the citizens of Macon and Bibb County approved a referendum consolidating Macon and Bibb County governments. So how do you merge 4 longstanding current commission districts and 5 city wards? (I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume adding 4 and 5 our local representatives to the state legislature came up with 9 commission districts. If my assumption is wrong, I welcome the opportunity to be corrected.) (3) I’ve heard it said that 5 commission districts were added to the 4 current commission districts, hence, the 9 districts. This explanation leads you to believe the 4 (current commission districts under the present structure) were left intact. The only redrawn district lines would’ve involved the 5 wards of the city. (It certainly would have been easier to rename the 5 city wards commission districts (with each district having one commissioner); the 5 Ward lines were already drawn. It might’ve made even more sense to redraw the current 4 commission districts incorporating the 5 wards. After all, the city is surrounded by the County.) This option would have retained 4 expanded Commission districts, hence, maybe larger staffs but certainly less management. (Saving money for a true consolidated government.) This is certainly not what happened. For example, I live a “skip and a hop” from the Twiggs County line in East Bibb County and I’ve always voted in District 1. With the redistricting, I am now in District 3. Clearly citizens in District 1 were confused; nobody moved. A check of the 9-district commission map shows that District 1 is now in North Macon effective January 1, 2014. Citizens in North Macon are currently in District 3. Some of them wanted to know “why the district change since they’d lived there for 30-50 years?” The same for those of us in East Macon—we’ve been in the same location for 40 years; why move District 1 from East Bibb County to North Bibb County? (4) Some early voters who stated they were in the wrong district said they’d always voted in Commission District 9. We know that’s simply not possible since there is no District 9 until Jan 1, 2014. (5) Some early voters (Rivoli Drive area, Barrington Hall, Hartley Bridge Road, several East Macon areas) stated they were in different commission districts than their neighbors up the street or across the street. 2. Based on the information provided above, no one should be surprised that there were problems encountered during Early Voting. At this point, I must fully disclose: I worked Early Voting for the September 17 Special Election at the Board of Elections as an employee of a Temporary Agency. It is not my purpose to point fingers at anyone; however, there are issues that need to be addressed and The People deserve answers. The Board of Election Officials owned up to some errors on their part; they also owned up to being the “guinea pigs” for the newly installed State software for the Voting/Election program. Luckily, Macon Bibb County was the only county in the state of Georgia holding an Election and using this new, “slow as a turtle” software, since the bugs were being identified and corrected during early voting. The problems, however, that citizens were concerned with were those involving district assignments. Some of the local media was at the polls on a daily basis; they witnessed the long lines; the long process it took Poll Workers to perform a 100% check of voters’ addresses against the 9-district commission maps; they also interviewed some voters as they left the polls. No one faults the media for doing their jobs. (The Director purchased individual large maps for each of the 9 districts that showed every street in Macon Bibb County.) This 100% check directed by the Secretary of State did indeed prove to be a tedious and long task. Many voters wanted to know how the Board got the voter registration cards wrong? Many voters wanted to know “how they could be in the same neighborhood with someone and be identified in a different district. All are good questions that need to be answered. What I learned looking at those 9 maps was “the true meaning of gerrymandering.” What I am saying is: A. There is a pocket area scooped from District 7 and identified in District 8. B. There is an area that is down in District 9 but is drawn into District 4. C. District 6 scoops down and claims a few streets in District 9. D. Certain areas in District 4 are drawn into Districts 1, 5 and 9. E. Areas that appear to fit in District 2 are included in District 8. F. Looking at the streets in District 4 and 1, this is clearly where many of the $$$ are in Macon Bibb. G. I can’t say enough for District 3; its boundaries are from Walnut Ridge Road (Jones County) to Hawkinsville Road (toward Houston County) to David Road and Industrial Parkway (Twiggs County). H. I’m not even going to try to explain citizens living on the same street yet being in different districts. It’s all based on how the district lines were drawn; some district lines did split the streets to such a degree that Poll workers had to get down to street number to correctly identify district assignment. 3. The Board of Elections office belongs to the people. I invite everyone to visit “the peoples’ building” and review those maps. I do, however, caution you that the Board of Elections’ workers are not the ones to question about the district lines on the map. Those questions should be directed to the “architect(s)” who drew the lines. The architects were conveniently silent (and still are) when citizens were complaining about district assignments. These same architects (who like the architects of The St Jude Dream House) should have stepped forward and taken ownership of the work they had done (the district lines they’d drawn) for Macon Bibb consolidated government. Is there a reason the architects don’t want to face the people? Are you or are you not proud to brag about the work you put into drawing those district lines? The people are right to want answers; answers to such questions as: A. The 2010 census data showed Bibb County (includes Macon) with a population of 155,547. It also forecasts 156,462 as the population for 2012. Is this 156,462 population evenly divided amongst the 9 districts? B. The 2010 census data also identified Bibb County by Race and Ethnicity; it identified persons per household; it identified the language spoken; it identified educational level (high school and bachelor’s degree or higher); it identified veterans; it identified “mean” travel time to work; it identified who owned their homes and who rented their homes; it identified the median value of homes; it identified per capita income, the median income and persons living below the poverty level. The 2010 census identified business data; it identified who owned businesses by Race and Ethnicity. It identified where the land is as well as the value of the land in Bibb County. What part, if any, did the census data play in decisions on who was drawn into a particular district? 4. Most of us are aware that the majority party draws these lines (Republican Party is majority in GA). No one is asking you to change the lines. Just step forward and claim ownership of the work that you did. I’ll go a step farther. Educate the people you represent. Please provide a “Step by Step” Guide of the Redistricting Process. It should start with the redrawing of commission district lines. Tell us how this data goes from raw district lines data to the maps being drawn to the voter registration cards being produced to the Board of Elections. Tell us who is responsible for every piece of the work involved from redistricting to casting the ballot for an election.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Oct 2013 19:14:16 +0000
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