State law and federal courts require that the four Town Council Electoral Districts contain roughly equivalent populations. Municipalities in North Carolina are legally required to perform redistricting every 10 years, following the U.S. Decennial Census, to maintain a population balance among electoral districts.

Staff began working on the redistricting project with Council in November 2000 in order to ensure that all required steps and deadlines were met in time for the next Town election (in October 2001). As shown on the Project Schedule (Table 1), the main factor driving the schedule was the limited amount of time between receiving the results of the 2000 Census and the mandatory public hearing and final adoption dates required to meet the election deadlines.

The first project step taken by staff was to summarize applicable existing legal guidelines, case law, and Board of Election guidelines that should be followed by Council in performing the redistricting.

• Municipalities are legally required to perform redistricting every 10 years, following the U.S. Decennial Census, in order to maintain a population balance among Electoral Districts [G.S. 160A-23.1]

• Council members must reside within the district from which they are elected [G.S. 160A-101]

• Municipalities can voluntarily redistrict between decennial census years only under two circumstances [G.S. 160A-23] -

• after annexations
• after performing a special census

• The four Town Council Electoral Districts must contain roughly equivalent populations (i.e. each person's vote must count about the same). [State law, federal courts and US Constitution]

• 10% Rule -

• Based predominantly on federal case law
• Helps define US Constitution’s "roughly equivalent" requirement
• The sum of the percentage deviations between the smallest and largest districts and the ideal district must total less than 10% (where ideal = total town population / number of districts)

• District Boundaries -

• cannot split census blocks
• should generally not split precinct boundaries
• should follow some established line of demarcation, such as roads

• If it is not possible to meet the 10% Rule, then the new electoral district boundaries must cross precinct lines, major roads, or any other artificial lines other than Census blocks

• Subsequent to any adopted redistricting, the Town will be required to notify, in writing, all registered voters that were moved from one Council district to another

The next step in the project was to interview Council Members one-on-one to determine their preferred Goals and Objectives for redistricting. On February 5, 2001 staff prepared Draft Goals and Objectives for the redistricting process, based on these interviews (performed between December 2000 and January 2001). 

Following the development of Council's Goals & Objectives, staff prepared February 2001 population estimates and projections for each voting precinct relying on in-house data and assumptions. Using these precinct estimates, staff then used the Town's geographic information system to create population estimates for each Council district.

Using the 2001 population estimates by precinct, staff then prepared three alternative redistricting scenarios that attempted to meet Council's objectives while balancing the populations to within the maximum 10% deviation allowed by law. These scenarios were presented to Council at a work session on March 21, 2001. An alternatives analysis was prepared to show how well each alternative performed in meeting Council's objectives and the 10% population deviation limit. Staff's 2001 population figures were used at that time for illustration and discussion purposes only and were intended to be replaced with Census figures when available. Staff did not address the issue of future growth at that time since by law we were required to attempt to first balance the Census 2000 population. Staff requested feedback from the Council on this issue during the Work Session.

Official 2000 Population Census data from the Bureau of the Census was received by the Town on April 1, 2001, and substantiates the imbalance predicted through the Town's previous district population estimates. Table 2 shows the Official 2000 Census population for each current Electoral District. A 58.5% total deviation was found between the largest and smallest Council Districts, which far exceeds the 10% maximum allowed by law. Redistricting is therefore required at this time.

Table 2 - Official 2000 Census Population by Current District

The preferred Alternative 2 from the March Work Session was recalculated by staff using the Census 2000 population figures. As shown in Table 3, this preferred option gives a 4.9% deviation between the largest and smallest districts. This is well within the maximum deviation allowed by law (i.e. 10%). The Preferred Option also rectifies a previous split in Precinct 04-02 (which was split between Districts B and C) by combining the Precinct and placing it entirely in District B.

As shown in Table 3, the Preferred Redistricting Option would result in the addition of approximately 3,000 people each to Districts A, B and C, and the removal of a little over 10,000 people from District D. This would equate to a positive population change of 15% to 17% for Districts A, B and C and a negative change of 30% for District D.

Map

Although the Board of Elections' guidelines prohibit the Town's Official District Map from excluding (or appearing to split when it really doesn't) any portion of an official voting precinct, staff felt it was important that our new district map be designed to highlight our planning areas within those precincts that contain other jurisdictions. We also wanted to take this opportunity to clean up and remove some precincts that do not contain any of Cary's planning area and make sure those new precincts under Cary's jurisdiction are added to our official map. Specific items cleaned up on the Official District Map to address these issues include:

• Removal of Precincts 20-07, 20-08, 20-03, 20-06 and 20-01 to the south and west of Town (within current District D), since they do not contain any Town of Cary planning areas (i.e. Town limits, extraterritorial jurisdiction or long or short range urban service areas).
• The inclusion of a new Precinct (#12.01) to the very south of Town (within current District C) that includes the Middle Creek area, which contains land within our planning area.
• The addition of a new Precinct (East Williams) in Chatham County (within current District D) that includes a portion of the Town's jurisdiction (i.e. Amberly development)
• Display the remainder of those precincts that are partially within adjacent jurisdictions (e.g. precincts 18-02, 04-05, 05-01, 05-02, 20-02, etc.) as being within our Official District boundaries, but show those areas in a lighter color to distinguish them from our planning area (the darker colors).

• East half of Precinct 04-02 would move from District C to B 
• Precinct 04-04 would move from District A to B 
• Precinct 04-15 would move from District A to D 
• Precincts 20-02 and the new East Williams Precinct in Chatham County would move from District D to A 
• Precincts 20-010 and 20-04 would move from District D to A 
• Precinct 20-05 would move from District D to C 
• The new Precinct 12.01 in Middle Creek would be included in District C 

The preferred redistricting option and revised district map show four electoral districts that are roughly equivalent in population (i.e. each one is very close to the ideal Census 2000 population of 23,634). The preferred redistricting option contains only a 4.9% total deviation between largest and smallest districts, and therefore meets all state and federal legal guidelines and case law, while also meeting Board of Elections guidelines by effectively balancing the district populations without splitting any precincts. The preferred option also satisfies the Council's redistricting goals and objectives, including keeping as many major neighborhoods together as possible, allowing three districts to represent older parts of Town, and using major geographic boundaries as much as possible to divide districts.