Today’s post is a guest column by Maui community activist Dick Mayer
By Dick Mayer
Ten years ago, a State Reapportionment Commission established our House and Senate legislative districts. The districts had approximately equal population numbers. However, the 2020 census figures have just been released and some districts grew faster than others. Although the changes aren’t great, there is a need to rebalance the district boundaries so that each district will have an approximately equal population.
A new State Reapportionment Commission has determined that Maui will retain its three State Senate seats and six State House seats. Therefore, no new districts will be created, nor will Maui loose a district.
Because of changes in the location of the resident population, it will be necessary to slightly redraw the district boundaries. Some districts will add new areas while others will lose some areas. There should be no more than a 10% difference between the district with the lowest population and the district with the highest total.
HOUSE DISTRICTS
The six House districts need to make boundary adjustments to make them more equal in population for the 2022 election. If the six house districts had the same population there would be 27,473 residents in each district.
Because of the population growth in Central Maui relative to the other districts, there will be a need to shift some of the Central Maui voters into the present West and/or South Maui House districts.
SENATE DISTRICTS
In a similar manner, the following table reports the new 2020 resident population numbers for the present State Senate districts. Each Senate district is made up of two House districts. If all of the population was divided equally for Maui County’s three Senate districts, there would be 54,945 people in each of the three districts.
Notably, Senator Gilbert Keith-Agaran’s fifth senate district has grown and now has a larger population than the other two districts. Consequently, there will be a need to redraw the district boundaries to allow some of those who have been voting in the Wailuku and Kahului area to now vote in the South and West Maui area.
GET INVOLVED
If readers wish to get into the details of how to create districts that have equal populations, they can go to Hawaii Reapportionment Commission – Redistricting Online. Sign up and listen to the informative tutorial. Have some fun moving census blocks from one district to another, keeping in mind that districts need not have exactly the same resident population. Complete detailed Maui data and maps should be posted on Friday, September 10.
Dick Mayer, retired Maui Community College Professor and moderator of numerous candidate forums, was the Vice-Chair of the General Plan Advisory Committee that helped develop our Maui Island Plan.
