April 2023 update. House Bill 99 (PDF file) would change the Wake County Board of Commissioners to single-member districts, with two at-large seats. The bill has passed the State House and is under consideration in the State Senate.
May 2022 update. The purpose of this website was to make information about North Carolina county commission redistricting more available to voters and to promote solutions that put voters, not politicians, in charge of drawing county districts. The 2021 county redrawing process is mostly completed, but in a handful of counties local citizens and pro-democracy groups are looking at how county commission elections can be made fairer and more responsive to voters. These reforms could in principle be put in place in the near term through court challenges or action in the legislature, leading to a “mid-decade” redrawing of that county’s districts. This is especially likely where the current system appears to violate the Voting Rights Act or to be unconstitutional, either under the NC constitution or the “one-person-one-vote” principle in the federal constitution. Stay tuned!
FCNC County Pages for FCNC Focus (Redraw) Counties
Anson Buncombe Carteret Cumberland Edgecombe Forsyth Granville Guilford Halifax Lenoir Mecklenburg Nash Orange Pasquotank Robeson Vance Washington Wayne Wilson
In addition to the FCNC Focus Counties, these NC counties also redrew districts in 2021: Bladen, Caswell, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Duplin, Franklin, Harnett, Jones, Lee, Montgomery, Pamlico, Pitt, Sampson.
County Commission District Maps on davesredistricting.org — as of 2020, BEFORE the 2021 districts were redrawn.
Anson Bladen Buncombe Carteret Caswell Columbus Craven Cumberland Duplin Edgecombe Forsyth Franklin Granville Guilford Halifax Harnett Jones Lee Lenoir Mecklenburg Montgomery Nash Orange Pamlico Pasquotank Pitt Robeson Sampson Vance Washington Wayne Wilson
For more information about FCNC county maps on davesredistricting.org,
see Resources > Maps.
County Redraw Status Reporting. As of May 2022, the 2021 county redrawing process is mostly completed. See here for the status reporting we did for the 2021 redraw focus counties. Some counties (such as Orange County) were not required to redraw even though they vote for commissioners by districts because the population changes over the last decade were evenly spread across their districts, so population/commissioner remained about equal.
Sign up to receive updates for NC county commission redistricting.
Every 10 years, after the Census, we redraw the districts we use to elect our representatives. We “redistrict” so all the districts have about the same population, despite uneven population growth.
When districts are drawn to favor certain political parties, groups, or candidates, that’s “gerrymandering”!
Gerrymandering is a form of voter suppression. It creates safe seats, so it’s harder for voters to hold their elected officials accountable. It often puts particular groups of voters at a disadvantage, so they have less say in who gets elected.
Any political office that uses districts to elect officials can be gerrymandered, including county commissions as well as Congress, our legislature, the school board, the city council, etc. And in North Carolina, they often are!
North Carolina voters have become much more aware of the dangers of gerrymandering, whether it affects the Congress, the state legislature, or local governments. We look forward to continuing to work with local partners to fight gerrymandering and unfair districts in county commissions or wherever politicians draw lines to favor themselves. 2030 may seem far off, but, really, it’s not! By standing up to demand an open redistricting process and districts that fairly represent your community (rather than being gerrymandered), you can get a greater voice in who represents you and a more responsive government.
The FairCountiesNC team stands ready to help!
Redistricting applies to every county commission that 1) elects some or all commissioners from districts and 2) has enough population change to trigger a redraw. Counties that select all their commissioners “at-large” (county-wide) don’t have districts, so they usually don’t redraw.
County commission redistricting took place in 2021-22 and will happen again in 2031 after the next census (or earlier if courts, commissions, or the legislature change the system).
Did your county redistrict? Click here to find out if your county has to redraw after the Census (if Census data show that the districts no longer have about the same number of residents per commissioner).
How FairCountiesNC helped voters raise their voices for county commission redistricting in 2021-2:
We helped local democracy activists to form a local team to help their communities follow the process and get involved.
Teams worked with local officials to push for adoption of a redistricting process and criteria for selecting a map that provided for greater fairness, transparency, and citizen input.
Teams also pressed commissions to redraw when required, even if the commissioners were hesitant to do so.
Interested in learning more about local redistricting? Ask FairCountiesNC to organize a workshop to discuss how redistricting works and how to get maps that reflect your community.
It’s not too early to start pressing your county commission to adopt our Fair Counties Resolution
What do county governments do? Why are they important? Check out this video from Alamance County Whatever you care about in your local community, chances are that the county commission has a role in how decisions are made and how services are provided (or not).
Why should you care? Because your county commission makes decisions affecting you and your family every day!
From schools to public health to the courts…and a whole lot more…your county commission’s decisions make a BIG difference in YOUR community. Learn more about what your county commission does, why you need a county commission that listens to YOU, and how fair districts help make that happen.