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For the FCNC focus counties and several other counties, we have now loaded up county commissioner district maps on davesredistricting.org (DRA 2020). These are maps of the current district boundaries, as of Aug. 2020.  These maps have been generated from information provided by the county government, but because of rendering onto 2020 census blocks and other considerations, there may be slight differences from the official map (indicated by areas within the black district boundary lines that are the wrong color for that district). 

You can view the maps on DRA 2020 from the home page of this website or by using the links below:

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

Can my county commission map be added to those on DRA 2020? Yes! We can add the current district boundaries map for more NC counties to DRA 2020. Currently our priority is on counties that could redraw county district borders in 2021 because they use true districts (not at-large or districts-at-large systems). Send your request to us using our Contact Us page.

Should my county redraw district boundaries in 2021? There are two factors to consider. First, only counties with true districts (where some or all commissioners are voted on by district) may redraw boundaries in 2021. (Counties that select all their commissioners using county-wide at-large voting can’t redraw, even if commissioners are required to reside in specific “districts” but are voted on county-wide). All the counties that we have loaded into davesredistricting.org (see the list above) elect some or all commissioners using true districts. To find out which other counties have true districts, please see the table on the All Counties page. Counties with a ‘Y’ in the 2020 Redraw column elect some or all of their commissioners from true districts.

If your county has a true-district system, then the second consideration is how much the population in each county district deviates from the county’s new mean population per commissioner, using the 2020 Census population. For the counties we’ve loaded up in davesredistricting.org (DRA 2020), you can click on the county’s name above to see the map on DRA 2020, then click on the Show District Statistics button (grid logo, top right) and view the district deviations from the ideal/mean district population. If your county commission has only single-member districts, a common guideline followed is that the county should redraw district boundaries if the population deviation for any district is 5% above or below the new 2020 ideal (mean) population per commissioner. If the two largest deviations total more than 10%, then redrawing is mandatory, based on previous court cases.

For the counties listed above that have been loaded into DRA 2020, the FCNC assessment is that Cumberland, Forsyth and Orange will NOT need to redraw in 2021, because county district population deviations from the mean/ideal per commissioner are less than +/- 5%.

Multi-member Districts. Buncombe, Carteret, Cumberland, Forsyth, and Orange are counties with multi-member districts. The districts for these counties also need to respect “one person one vote,” but the “ideal” district population may vary depending on the number of commissioners in each district. In that situation, the district population per commissioner must be the same across all districts, so a district with two commissioners must have twice the population of a district with just one commissioner. Contact FCNC if your county has multi-member districts and you need help in determining if it must redraw based on 2020 Census population changes.

Using DRA 2020. In addition to viewing district populations, DRA 2020 can be used to assess the fairness of the district map, racial/ethnic composition, and how it will perform based on election data. Demographic information, including minority population, can be viewed at various levels of detail: county, municipality, precinct and Census block. There is also a Show Analytics button (“target” logo, top right) where you can view map ratings using 5 criteria. DRA 2020 analytics assume equal population in districts, so some ratings might not be relevant for counties with multi-member districts.

You can also create a free login account on DRA 2020, duplicate one of the FCNC county maps, and then edit and make changes to the districts to compare different map plans or even draw a new map to propose. (We’re a nonpartisan program, so we can’t help you with political analyses.)

Can Communities of Interest (COI) be added to a county district map in DRA 2020? Yes! COIs can be added to a DRA 2020 county district map using Custom Overlays. See here for information about COIs and using them to achieve better representation when drawing a district map. Contact FCNC for assistance adding COIs from Representable or another source to a DRA 2020 county districts map or duplicating our map and drawing your own.

Here (PDF slides) is an example for Wilson County of adding COIs created in Representable.org to the Wilson County Commission Districts map in DRA 2020. View the DRA 2020 Wilson + COIs map here.

Resources for using DRA 2020.