Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisor heard Tuesday that redistricting supervisor districts would have more latitude than the last redistricting.

Deputy Registrar of Voters George Allen told Supervisors that the equality requirement has been changed in case law.

County Council Martha J. Shaver said former county attorney John Hahn supplied a 2001 opinion which said the mathematical equality of a 3 percent variance from absolute equality would be permissible. But Shaver said the U.S. Supreme Court has found that rules for mathematical guidelines for redistricting for validity were frowned upon. The ruling said using 3 percent variance as a threshold for validity of variance, was not true.

She said a deviation among legislative districts of 10 percent or less was allowed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and it should apply to Supervisor districts. She said the five districts break down to equally have 20 percent each of the population. But the variance could be up to 10 percent if the county has policy stating “reasons for which you are departing from a 20 percent total in each district” as long as the deviation is less that 10 percent.

Allen said the numbers he had for supervisors on Tuesday “will be less than 10 percent” variance. He said minority guidelines to stop segregation were not relevant because the county did not have enough minority populations to make any one group a majority of voters in any Supervisor district. He said “Amador County has about a 10 percent Hispanic population” but most are at Mule Creek.

Relevant qualifiers for variance in percentage equality included policy guided by topography, geography, property boundaries, and communities of interest, Allen said. It also included cohesiveness, continuity, and territory of contiguity. He said “integrity” of districts would honor boundaries of cities and service districts. For a compact district, he said a circular district is good, but one with tentacles is not.

Allen said most districts follow such boundaries, with some exceptions. He said the county should inform Amador Local Agency Formation Commission that part of Sutter Creek had a problem with the District lines cutting out part of the Amador High School football field, from District 2 to District 5.

Supervisor Louis Boitano said: “Does that mean I cannot coach?” Allen said no, it just means “you have to talk to (Supervisor Brian Oneto).”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.