Redistricting could disenfranchise tens of thousands of voters in Sedgwick County

New Sedgwick County Commission district boundaries could disenfranchise tens of thousands of residents and nearly 10% of the county’s Black population, delaying their votes for an additional two years, an Eagle analysis of Census data found.

The commission redraws district boundaries once each decade after the release of the U.S. Census count. By law, all governmental bodies divided into districts have to balance populations between those districts, so each person’s vote ideally carries equal weight.

County officials said they took the number of disenfranchised voters into consideration when drawing the new boundaries but have not publicly released the data on the county’s redistricting dashboard. Commissioners Lacey Cruse and Jim Howell, who have each drawn their own maps, have requested that more details on each of the maps be provided on the dashboard and to an ad hoc redistricting committee.

Where the lines are drawn can dramatically affect the voting power of racial and political minorities and other groups with common interests in government, such as neighborhoods or people with similar income levels. Federal law prohibits redistricting plans that discriminate against people of color or members of language minority groups.

“We thought about disenfranchised voters . . . when we were making these,” said Mike Fessinger, assistant county counselor. “And when I say that, what I mean is that when you vote for a commissioner, you do so every four years, but not every commissioner is up for re-election at the same time. Two of our commissioners are up and then three the next term. If you’ve waited four years to vote for a commissioner, and all of the sudden you get moved into a district that is on the other election cycle, you would then wait six years to vote for a commissioner.”

“It’s not illegal for us to move somebody such that they would have to wait six years to vote for a commissioner, but it’s a factor that we had in mind when we were making these maps,” Fessinger said.

Sedgwick County Commissioners serve four-year terms and are elected on staggered schedules. Districts 1, 4 and 5 are elected in midterm election years, and Districts 2 and 3 are elected on presidential election years, which have higher voter turnout.

The analysis of voter registration data and the 11 proposed redistricting plans found a majority of the new maps disenfranchise more registered Democratic voters than Republican voters, despite Republican voters holding a 61-39 advantage countywide compared with Democratic voters, an Eagle analysis found.

The Eagle’s analysis also found 84% of Sedgwick County’s 45,076 Black residents live in commission districts elected during midterm elections, which traditionally have much lower voter turnout than presidential election years.

The proposed maps move between 3,200 and 54,833 overall residents from a district where the last election was 2018 to a district where they won’t be able to vote again until 2024.

None of the maps do much to change the percentage of Black residents living in districts that vote in non-presidential election years. Plan 5, which reorients most of the county’s districts, presents the most substantial shift, placing 26% of the county’s Black residents in districts where commissioners are elected during the higher-turnout presidential election year.

In the other maps, 80-84% Black Sedgwick County residents would live in districts where the commissioners are elected during midterm elections.

Sedgwick County has come under fire for ignoring race demographics in the new maps. A county attorney said if the commission doesn’t consider racial data, it’s more difficult to be accused of gerrymandering. The redistricting committee is scheduled to review 11 proposed maps for fairness and bring back a recommendation to commissioners.

Additionally, where the lines are drawn could have major political implications. In each proposed map, Republican voters maintain a majority in every district. Republicans have held a majority on the commission for 23 consecutive years.

Disenfranchised residents

This table shows how many people would have to wait an additional two years before voting to pick their representative in county government. The table shows total disenfranchised population, Black disenfranchised population, percentage of the Black population, and the number of Republican and Democratic voters disenfranchised under each plan.

These residents would be moving from Districts 1, 4 or 5 (next election in 2022) to District 2 or 3 (next election in 2024).

*Proposed by Commissioner Lacey Cruse

**Proposed by Commissioner Jim Howell

To see how the county’s districts could be redrawn, click here.

This story was originally published November 19, 2021 at 2:42 PM.