The Mississippi NAACP chapter and DeSoto County are making legal objections to the Mississippi Legislature’s redrawn legislative district maps in two separate court briefs, with both complaining that the plans for DeSoto County do not offer equal participation in the political process.
DeSoto County says the Mississippi Legislature’s newly redrawn legislative district maps “violate traditional redistricting principles and place DeSoto residents’ representative rights at risk.”
“… As will be discussed more fully, however, in DeSoto County in particular, the District 1 and District 11 Senate maps dismantle communities of interest, disregard natural geographical boundaries, and distort commonsense cartography,” DeSoto County wrote in a March 14 court brief.
The NAACP wrote that the redrawn maps for the Senate’s redistricting of DeSoto County and the House’s new plan for Chickasaw and Monroe counties do not allow Black voters to have a fair chance to elect candidates of their choice.
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“Because the Legislative Plans do not create new districts where Black voters have a realistic opportunity to elect candidates of their choice despite racially polarized voting, there is no functional change from the unlawful 2022 Plans,” the NAACP said in its March 14 brief.
Joint Resolution 1 alters the district lines of Mississippi House districts 16, 22, 36, 39 and 41 to create at least one more Black-majority House district in compliance with the federal court’s orders. Joint Resolution 202 revises the composition of Mississippi Senate districts 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 34, 41, 42, 44 and 45 to create at least two more Black-majority Senate districts to follow the court’s orders.
The Senate voted to approve its redistricting plan, J.R. 202, by a 33-16 vote on Feb. 26, and the House passed it by a 67-51 vote on March 5. The House passed its redistricting proposal, J.R. 1, by a 81-33 vote on Feb. 6, and the Senate approved it with a 30-12 vote on March 5.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed H.B. 1
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