The Orange County Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved the redistricting of political boundaries in the county. The Commissioners conducted first a Public Hearing to discuss and receive comments from citizens on alternative plans for the realigning of County Commissioner precincts and then held a special court session to approve the redrawn precinct lines.
A Houston based attorney’s firm worked with the Commissioners in October to redraw the precinct lines to have more balance of the population in each of the four precincts. Prior to the modifications of the precinct lines Orange County had a difference of 23.23 percent between the populations of each of the four precincts in the county. State law requires the variance not to exceed ten percent.
Orange County has seen a growth of about three thousand people in the last ten years since the last census bringing the population to 84,808 for the county. Most of that growth has been in the Bridge City and Orangefield areas which are both in Precinct Three.
The new precinct lines achieve the desired variance of less than ten percent. Precinct One on the east side of the county is 2.8 percent less than the average, Precinct Two in the middle of the county is 1.16 percent above the average, Precinct Three in the south of the county is 1.07 above the average, and Precinct Four on the west side of the county is 0.56 percent above the average.
-Dan Perrine, KOGT-
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