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Focus Counties

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

Oct. 2021. The 2021 county redistricting process has begun. See the FCNC home page for a summary of county redistricting status.


31 of North Carolina’s 100 counties likely will redraw county district boundaries in 2021. FairCountiesNC has identified Focus Counties that are: a) likely to redistrict and b) may be at a higher risk for gerrymandering. See below for our list of Focus Counties, with basic county districting information, and a link to more information about redistricting in that county and how its county commission districts are structured. (An example of a county page is Guilford County.)

North Carolina uses several different methods to draw county districts, including: single-member districts, multi-member districts, districts-at-large (DAL) and at-large (AL). Some counties even select part of the commission using one method and the rest using a different method. Visit our Commission Structure Tutorial to learn more about these methods.

To view a list of all NC counties, including how they select their commissioners and a link to the county’s website, see the All NC Counties – Commission Model page.

Volunteer! You can participate in achieving Fair Redistricting in an FCNC Focus County. Choose a county from the Focus County list, visit the FCNC county page, and then start or join a County Team for Fair Redistricting. Contact FCNC for help getting started.


Other Counties Redrawing in 2021. Here are additional counties that will redraw district boundaries in 2021:

Bladen, Camden, Carteret, Caswell, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Duplin, Harnett, Jones, Lee, Montgomery, Pamlico, Pitt, Sampson

Do you want to start a County Team for Fair Redistricting for one of these counties? If so, great, contact FCNC for help getting started.


Focus Counties Table

Some notes about the table:

No. of Comms.Number of county commissioners.
Model DetailsSome counties use a combination of districting models.  For example, the Cumberland model details are “5d; 2al”. This indicates that the county has 7 commissioners, 5 are elected by district (pure district) and 2 elected at-large.
TermsNumber of years each commissioner is elected for (usually 4). An S next to the term length means some seats come up in one election and the rest in the next election (staggered terms).
2021 Focus Counties for Fair Redistricting in NC

Table Footnotes

3. Chair elected separately.
6. Forsythe (7 members). One 2-member district; 1 4-member district; 1 at-large member. 
13. Orange County and Carteret County use a different type of residency districts (district-at-large or DAL seats) than do other counties with DAL seats. We have labeled this variant DAL1. For these seats, only the voters in the district vote (nominate) in the primary, but all voters countywide vote (elect) in the general election. In all other counties with DAL seats, all voters countywide vote for all of the open seats in both the primary and the general. (See the Commission Structure page for more information on this topic.)
13a. Carteret (7 members). 1 2-member district; 5 1-member districts.
13b. Orange (7 members). 1 3-member district; 1 2-member district; 2 at-large.
15. Buncombe (7 members). 3 2-member districts; 1 at-large member.
16. Cumberland (7 members). 1 2-member district; 1 3-member district, 1 at-large member.
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CD. Consent Decree. The county is believed to remain under an active judgement or consent order with regard to county commissioner structure. See the Commission Structure page, Consent Decree topic, for more information.