When they separate North Carolina's 9.5 million people into 13 congressional districts, Republican mapmakers reserved the special place for Sallie Stocks. They put everybody in Sampson County into the 2nd Congressional District. That is, solely for the 85-year-old woman who lives off the country road near Duplin County. She alone would join the 3rd District, that stretches to the Outer Banks as well as the Virginia line. Stocks is only the most conspicuous anomaly in the map of proposed new voting districts. She illustrates the confusing arithmetic of the congressional redistricting process that splits counties, towns as well as neighborhoods. Consider: -- In Wendell, the Wake County locale of 5,845 east of Raleigh, everybody would be in the 1st District solely for three people along Wendell Boulevard. They would be in the 13th. -- Almost all of Statesville's 24,532 people would be in the 5th District. Twenty-seven would be in the 9th. -- In Nashville, the Nash County locale near Rocky Mount, 5,349 people would be in the 1st District. Three would be in the 3rd. -- Most of Hickory's 40,000 people would be separate between the 5th as well as 10th Districts. But 84 would move to an 11th District that stretches to the Georgia line. "By the stroke of the pen, the city of Hickory has been diced, sliced as well as divided," city resident Judy Ivester pronounced at the public hearing final week. Republicans who control the General Assembly call the map "competitive," though it's expected to help GOP candidates at the expense of up to four incumbent Democrats. However partisan, the process additionally involves artful math. The ideal population for each of the 13 congressional districts is 733,499. Court rulings call for "zero deviation," meaning districts have to be virtually next to in size. Under the GOP plan, seven districts are right at the ideal. Five others have 744,498 people. One has 733,500. So for mapmakers, North Carolina's 289,000 census blocks were like! the jig saw puzzle with no single solution. And in rural Sampson County, near the crossroads village of Turkey, Sallie Stocks has the census block all to herself. So when she joins her neighbors to vote at the Turkey locale hall, she'll be the only one to get the ballot for the 3rd District. "When our totals come in for the 3rd District they would know exactly how she voted, as well as the law will not allow that," pronounced Donna Marshburn, Sampson County's elections director. "If that were me, I'd raise the roof." By state law, votes are confidential. "Ballots shall not be disclosed to members of the public in such the way as to divulge how the particular voter voted," it says. Stocks declined to comment. But Sen. Bob Rucho, the Matthews Republican who chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee, pronounced he expects Stocks will be moved. "There are hundreds of thousands of census blocks as well as one of them could have been misplaced, as well as hopefully those are things we'll be able to correct as long as it's not the 'zero deviation' issue," he said. "If it's the 'zero deviation' issue, there's not the darn thing we can do about it." The GOP congressional plan splits the third of North Carolina's 100 counties. It splits even more towns as well as cities. Most of Charlotte would be in the 9th as well as 12th Districts. But less than 4 percent of the population would be in the 8th. Raleigh would be separate into four districts: the 1st, 2nd, 4th as well as 13th. Only 4,500 of its 404,000 people would be in the 2nd. Smaller towns additionally would split. In Asheboro, the city of 25,000, 103 people would leave the 6th District for the 8th. In the Rowan County locale of East Spencer, five of its 1,500 people would move from the 12th District to the 8th. Every time the county as well as precinct is divided, choosing officials have to print separate ballots. Hickory's Judy Ivester, an independent voter, pronounced it additionally can have it harder to get concerned with politica! l organi zations or campaigns as well as mean less attention from elected officials. "Why should (5th District U.S. Rep.) Virginia Foxx use up her time as well as her resources to help 15,000 people (in Hickory) when she can put it in someplace like Winston-Salem?" she said. "We used to be an important player." Complete legislative maps are due out today. Lawmakers are scheduled to vote on all the maps later this month. Rucho pronounced they'll try to correct anomalies such as Sallie Stocks' where they can. "It's like pushing the balloon," he said. "There's the ripple effect." Staff researcher Maria David contributed. Jim Morrill: 704-358-5059 Subscribe to The Charlotte Observer.
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