By Sonny Jones
The Bladen County Board of Commissioners have scheduled a meeting Wednesday to discuss redistricting based on the 2020 census.
The meeting is expected to begin at 5 p.m. in the Commissioners’ Room located on the lower level of the Bladen County Courthouse in Elizabethtown. The public is invited to attend. The meeting also can be accessed by calling 571-317-3122 with access code 377-006-581.
Government boards are required to review voting districts at the national, state and local level every 10 years following the release of the census in order to comply with the one-person, one-vote requirement of the U.S. Constitution and N.C. Constitution, according to Robert P. Joyce of the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Government in a release to local governments.
The responsibility for drawing new districts for elections to Congress and to the state House of Representatives and Senate lies with the General Assembly, Joyce wrote. The responsibility for drawing new districts for local government rests with the city councils, the county commissions, and the school boards, he wrote.
Redistricting in Bladen County for the 2022 elections must be completed by Nov. 17, 2021. Filing for the 2022 elections is from Dec. 6-17, according to the N.C. Board of Elections.
The Board of Commissioners and Board of Education each have nine members with three elected at-large and two each elected from three districts. Each member serves four-year terms and seats are voted upon on a staggered basis. Commissioner elections are partisan and school board elections are non-partisan. Elections are held in even-numbered years.
Bladen’s seven municipalities — Bladenboro, Clarkton, Dublin, East Arcadia, Elizabethtown, Tar Heel and White Lake — conduct elections in odd-numbered years. None of the municipal elections are based on districts, according to election results on the State Board of Elections site. Municipal elections are scheduled Nov. 2.
The U.S. Census Bureau reported in April that Bladen County had a 2020 population of 29,606, which was a 15.9% decrease from the 2010 count of 35,190. That gave Bladen County the sixth highest population percentage drop in the state behind Tyrell (26.4%), Hyde (21%), Northampton (20.9%), Anson (18.2%) and Duplin (16.7%).
North Carolina gained nearly 1 million residents over the 10-year census period. The state had 10,439,388 people in the 2020 count compared to 9,535,483 in 2010, which is a 9.5% increase. North Carolina will gain a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives based on the census, giving the state 14 members.
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