New district lines for Franklin County
Franklin County voters will have some new faces to vote for on the state level this November due to redistricting changes that were passed in May 2012.
According to Franklin County Probate Judge Barry Moore, some of the district lines have changed for portions of Franklin County and he wanted to make sure voters were aware of these changes before the Nov. 4 general election.
“The voters in Franklin County have been used to the entire county being represented by the same legislators, but that won’t be the case now in regards to our state representative,” Moore said.
“Because of the redistricting, Franklin County will not solely be part of House District 18 as it has been in years past. Instead, the county has been divided, with portions from Russellville west remaining in House District 18 and the eastern third of the county being part of House District 7.”
According to the new district lines, the county has been divided with the east portion of Franklin County becoming part of District 7, which is currently represented by Republican Ken Johnson from Moulton, and the west half remaining in District 18, which is currently represented by Democrat Johnny Mack Morrow.
The new Senate district lines had little effect physically for Franklin County because the entire county has remained part of District 6, which is currently represented by Sen. Roger Bedford.
The changes to District 6 come in neighboring counties. Instead of District 6 including Fayette, Lamar, Marion and Winston counties as it did in the past, Senate District 6 now includes all of Colbert County, half of Marion County and portions of southwest Lauderdale County including Waterloo.
Fayette will be represented by a senator from Jasper, Lamar will be represented by a senator from Tuscaloosa and east Marion County will be represented by a senator from Cullman.
The reason for these changes is due to state guidelines that call for reapportionment of state Senate and House districts every 10 years based on new census data.
Even though the new state-level districts were passed by the Alabama Legislature more than two years ago in May 2012, the reapportionment plans had to be approved by Gov. Robert Bentley as well as the U.S. Department of Justice before becoming final.
Following approval from both Bentley and the U.S. Department of Justice, the Legislative Black Caucus filed a lawsuit claiming the new district lines were racially discriminatory due to the fact that the minority vote in some districts was significantly reduced.
On Dec. 20, 2013, a federal appeals court issued a ruling stating the new state-level districts in Alabama did not violate federal law and would be used in the 2014 state races.
“This could be confusing for some of our voters, so we just want everyone to be aware of these changes,” Moore said.
Anyone who is unsure of which House District they are now a part of can contact the Probate Judge’s office at 256-332-8800.
