Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that, when the commissioners’ districts in Guilford County are redrawn in the coming months, he’s going to do all he can to see to it that those lines are fairly drawn.
Alston said the redistricting effort shouldn’t be politically driven by either Democrats or Republicans.
All over the country, in places where redistricting is taking place, political leaders – as they have in the past – are attempting to draw the lines in a way favorable to their own parties.
However, Alston said he doesn’t want to see that happen here.
Since population growth in the county has been uneven over the years, he said, redistricting can help see that no area of the county is under-represented. He said that population changes in Guilford County over the last decade will make redistricting necessary.
“We have to redraw the districts because the population is changing,” Alston said, adding that he remembers the county’s redistricting a decade ago very well. In that go round, Alston and NC Senator Phil Berger got into a heated public battle over how the lines would be drawn.
Alston said this week that the Board of Commissioners will determine how the lines should be drawn and submit that recommendation to the state.
“There’s not going to be an attempt to favor the Democrats,” Alston said.
He added that it would be pointless for the current board to send a politically biased recommendation to the state that would just get rejected.
Alston said that, even though the Democrats on Guilford County Board of Commissioners currently holds a 7-to-2 majority, it’s important to realize that it was the Republicans who drew the current districts a decade ago.
Alston said it’s precarious when parties use redistricting as a way to advance political goals. He said the board he chairs will work diligently to come up with fair lines that keep political representation equitable.
It’s still very early in the process and some county commissioners and commissioner wannabes are watching closely to see how the lines will be drawn. Recently, District 3 Guilford Commissioner Justin Conrad noted that how the lines come out could determine who decides to run.
Guilford County Board of Elections Director Charlie Collicutt said that it’s early in the process and there’s not a lot of information to convey right now.
“I’ve been part of the conversation of how to ultimately present what data and when, but that’s it,” he said, adding that he hadn’t seen any advance data – or even older data – that will answer if the districts are to be redrawn, and, if so, how the districts could be reshaped.
Just prepping to screenshot these comments.
yeah,right.
Hey Skip,
Maybe you can help. Three times this week, I drove thru the intersection of W. Market St. & Guilford College Rd.
Despite temperate weather, not a sole worker sighted.
How long has this project been visible since the original barricade cans were planted? 2 years? 3? 4?
Despite all the platitudes, pasa nada aqui.
Could you redraw this district so that someone in the County or City will finish this intersection-to-nowhere? Sure is plenty of extorted cash available for, you know, INFRASTRUCTURE.
The work will be finished in three or four years. In the meantime, you should find an alternate route to get where you are going. It will be far less stressful for you, and the rest of us will be relieved to not hear you complain about it every week.
And you don’t need to post a reminder for Miller either.
Whine, b*^%h, and moan department.
Beautiful and temperate weather today. Passed thru my intersection today. Once there were two hard hats walking down the sidewalk, six were gathered around one man with a concrete saw – no one was actually doing anything.
If Alston says it will be fair, you can bet the farm that it will be racially skewed.
Fairly drawn for the demoscrat!
How can you question the alston wisdom remember he said the money pit museum downtown would be a great economic investment for the city and would make a lot of money one day when pigs fly
Seems like as a small child ,I was you that If a Democrats mouth was moving he is 90-97%Lying.Skip has already destroyed his accountability when the board voted a raise fir everyone.Then the took off on a boondoggle.Then they opened the pocketbook for the schools.These people including the Superintendent know how to throw away our money.So I guess the School leader is a Democrat as well.she still has not accounted for the money that was set aside for Schools Protection. Also Skip wants to empty the purse to the schools.We have a president that wants to empty all the US money for diff that we don’t need. It is causing the inflation to spike higher.When will our voters learn Democrats are bad for America. Let’s vote all of them out.