DELAWARE - The Delaware legislature has until November 8th to complete the state’s redistricting process. On Monday night, constituents were given the opportunity to comment on the proposed house redistricting maps.
With the proposed maps, Sussex County has a new district, the 4th district, which encompasses the Long Neck area.
"The creation of this district is to accommodate the population in Eastern Sussex, with very similar issues. We have a lot of people retiring there. We have all three of these communities: Oak Orchard, Angola, and Long Neck, have very similar issues, they have manufactured housing issues, flooding issues, and growing senior populations,” said Speaker of the House Pete Schwarzkopf.
The peninsula on the Indian River Bay moved from the 37th district to the new 4th district.
The redistricting process began in June, but on November 1st, a special session will be held to vote on the House and Senate's proposed plans. The maps must be approved by November 8th, exactly one year before the 2022 elections.
Some of the public is unhappy with these proposed changes. They say they were only given three business days to evaluate the maps and there is a large number of proposed districts that have border incumbents.
"Consideration of any incumbents address during map making unduly favors that incumbent’s chances for reelection, and should never be a consideration that outweighs the voting strength of a community,” said Dwayne Bensing from ACLU Delaware.
Common Clause Delaware is also concerned with the splitting of municipalities, and claims there is no need for that early deadline.
“It’s troubling that the reason the process is being fast-tracked, public participation truncated, may be to allow people to move so they can run for office, thus we ask the deadline be extended until the end of the year,” said Common Clause Delaware Director, Claire Snyder-Hall
The Speaker of the House and Senate President Pro Tempore say "Even with the delay at the federal level, our commitment here in Delaware to a public and transparent process remains steadfast."
The public can email comments to the House by Monday October 25th at HouseRedistricting2020@delaware.gov.