Clark County’s efforts to draw new boundaries for voting districts appears to have stalled yet again. While the county’s redistricting committee has put forward proposed maps that incorporate late-arriving Census numbers, the five-member bipartisan committee failed to agree on which map to approve.
If the redistricting committee cannot reach consensus, the decision could be up to the Clark County Council.
At issue is how to balance and divide the county’s growing population, how the map boundaries would impact the current county council members, as well as how and why a fifth district was created.
In November, more than 70 percent of Clark County voters approved changing from four districts to five. The ballot measure was put to voters by the nonpartisan Charter Review Commission, elected by voters in 2019.
“With our map, we made it clear we developed the five districts (boundaries) based on estimates because the census data wasn’t available yet,” said charter commission co-chair Chuck Green.
Whether four districts or five, Green said the redistricting committee would have been required to adjust the map boundaries this year because new Census numbers were released.
However, Republican redistricting committee members Cemal Richards and Juan Gamboa say they want to fix the mistakes they believe the Charter Review Commission made.
“The charter review board consists of all Democrats. Also, there were no opposing arguments in the Voters’ Pamphlet for this map,” Richards said. “There should have been something put on the ballot asking voters if they even want a fifth district. We feel it was orchestrated to basically gerrymander.”
Green said no opposition statements were submitted to publish in the Voters’ Pamphlet. He noted both the review commission and the elections office each sent out notices asking for “con” statements, but neither received a response.
“I made the comment before that voters didn’t have all the information. I’m a first-time voter. I just became a citizen a few years ago and I read that ballot … I reread it today and nowhere in there did I find any mention that the numbers were estimated,” Gamboa said during the committee meeting. “The census data changed everything.”
As for allegations of gerrymandering, Green said the review commission took extra precautions to prevent gerrymandering and that their actions were open and transparent.
“We started by looking at the five-district map the freeholders created in 2014 as a starting point. Then we looked at what does the map do with the incumbent councilors, and we realized it put three councilors into one district,” Green said.
As the discussions continued, Green said the commission members realized that continuing the conversation could be considered gerrymandering and stopped. Instead, he said the commission focused solely on how to adjust district populations to meet state law.
While the boundary map approved by voters would result in County Councilor Karen Bowerman no longer residing in District 3, which she represents, the redistricting committee’s proposed A2 map favored by Richards and Gamboa would keep Bowerman in her seat. Democratic committee members Morgan Holmgren and Janet Landesberg favor map B2.
Despite his statements at an earlier meeting, Republican Clark County Auditor Greg Kimsey said he could no longer support the A2 map. Kimsey said upholding what voters want takes precedence.
“For me, equal population was very important. The other real big deal to me is alignment with the voter-approved map,” Kimsey said. “There is not a judge in this state that’s going to take that voter approved, five-council map and say that was wrong … once the voters approve it, it’s a done deal.”
