York, Lancaster county residents can have a say on how voting districts will be drawn
York County Council will meet Monday night to hash out how people countywide will vote for the next decade. They’ll also be there to listen to voters.
The special called meeting starts at 6 p.m. Monday at the York County Government Center, 6 S. Congress St. in York. Council will get information on redistricting from the state revenue and fiscal affairs office. Interested citizens can pose questions or offer comments on the process.
The public can speak in Lancaster County, too. That meeting is at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Kershaw Recreation Center in Kershaw.
Redistricting is a process that sorts county voters into districts. Districts are designed to have roughly the same number of constituents. York County has seven council districts.
Each decade, a federal census provides data on how many residents there are and where those residents are. That census brings on a new round of redistricting. The 2020 census shows York County has 282,090 residents, up 25% from the 226,073 residents at the 2010 census.
At the meeting Monday, council will consider a resolution to outline criteria for redistricting. Council also will consider retaining an attorney to aid in the redistricting process.
When redistricting happens, areas of high growth since the prior census tend to gain representation. They often get all or part of new districts to account for higher growth patterns there than elsewhere. Census data shows considerable growth along the I-77 corridor through Fort Mill and Tega Cay, and along S.C. 49 in Lake Wylie.
York County is one of many municipalities to tackle redistricting. A redistricting study committee meets Tuesday night in Lancaster County. A draft map there shows the county panhandle, dominated the past decade by surging residential growth in Indian Land, with almost all of three full council districts. Indian Land now has two seats on the seven-member council.
