The Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) recently approved a map with new commission districts for the four single-member BOCC districts.
Redistricting is the mandated redrawing of local, state and federal political boundaries every 10 years following the federal census to account for changes in population during the previous decade. Hillsborough County added about 250,000 new residents since the last redistricting process in 2011.
The approved map can be found at hcflgov.net/redistricting.
The process of drawing the new maps was designed to maximize public access to the maps that were under consideration and to open the process to resident feedback at every point in the process. There were four in-person public engagements and four public meetings since September where many residents made their voices heard about the maps.
The approved map meets all criteria set forth by the BOCC, such as targeting 0 percent retrogression of minority composition in districts, including maintaining a high enough Black population (39 percent) in District 3 so as to maximize the opportunity for a minority candidate to be elected. Similar population sizes in single-member districts to comply with the ‘one person, one vote’ requirement. The population variance as depicted on the approved map is 7.7 percent. Districts should be as compact in form as possible and be contiguous. Districts should allow for the representation of general areas of the county that have similar interests or affinities.
Next, the map will need to be legally described and submitted to the Florida Secretary of State.
Hillsborough County’s redistricting process has been completed in time for the state to record the maps for use in the 2022 election cycle. The census information was delayed because of the pandemic, which put the redistricting process in a shortened time frame, but the deadline was met.
For more information, visit www.hcflgov.net/redistricting.
