Online Redistricting - Brief Article

Black Issues in Higher Education, Dec 21, 2000 by Ronald Roach

While civil rights groups and concerned faculty members at colleges and universities prepare to assist minority community groups on political reapportionment issues next April, one organization has put together an innovative online redistricting program that is believed to be the first of its kind in the nation.

Developed by the Southern Regional Council (SRC) in Atlanta, the program connects SRC officials and members of a citizen's voter group through the Internet to develop a voting district plan while online. The program makes use of both Internet conferencing and GIS software to enable SRC officials to guide an individual or group of people through preparation of a mapped redistricting proposal.

Although the Census 2000 data release of April 1 opens the official period for redistricting by local and state governments, the SRC assisted community groups in Florida and Georgia through the online redistricting program earlier this year.

"It's a net conferencing approach. We provide the databases [of the Census information]," says Dr. Winnett Hagens, director of the Fair Representation Program at the Southern Regional Council.

Interested groups will be required to make an appointment with the SRC to schedule a redistricting session with SRC officials. Within a matter of a few hours, a client can expect to have a custom redistricting plan for a locality or state produced by software that is downloaded to the client's office computer.

The service will be provided for a minimal fee, according to the SRC. Hagens, who was co-director of a voter redistricting project based at Norfolk State University, secured funding for redistricting online from the Carnegie Corporation, the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Institute. He declined to specify the amount of funding that was required to develop the online redistricting program.

For more information, contact the Fair Representation Program, Southern Regional Council at (404) 522-8764.