Franklin County committee given 2 weeks to redraw commissioner districts

A Franklin County committee has two weeks to redraw maps for the commissioner voting districts.

The nine-member redistricting committee officially got its marching orders Tuesday nearly six months after the commissioners created the group.

Now, they have until Oct. 19 to draw up three maps for commissioners to choose from to meet a Superior Court deadline.

While the commissioners had talked about putting the committee together since the beginning of the year, they didn’t take any action until May and the group has yet to meet.

The districts need to be adjusted because of the population boom in Pasco. Each district must have about the same number of people.

Franklin County grew the fastest in Washington state over the decade at 24%. And growth in the Hispanic population outpaced overall growth in both counties.

But also, the county was put on notice in October 2020 of a claim that the three voting districts discriminate against Latino voters by diluting their votes.

The predominately Latino sections of east Pasco, for example, are split so voters are in three commissioner districts.

Franklin County had six months to fix the issue or be sued. The county took no action and the lawsuit was filed in may by local members of the League of United Latin American Citizens, with the help of the UCLA Voting Rights Project.

Two weeks later, the commissioners formed their redistricting committee.

The suit in Franklin County Superior Court in Pasco demands the county commissioner districts be redrawn and asks a judge to stop the county’s current system of having district elections during the primary and countywide elections in the general election.

Redistricting committee

While the redistricting members were picked, the committee meetings were held up while they waited for census information and for a resolution to the lawsuit.

The committee’s status became an issue after an agreement Sept. 13 in the court case appeared to settle the dispute. But now the county is trying to reverse course on that settlement, asking a judge to withdraw from the agreement.

A hearing on the issue is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 11.

In the meantime, the county is moving ahead next week with the hearings to redraw the district boundaries.

The settlement agreed to a Nov. 8 deadline for Franklin County to turn in its redistricting map.

The committee includes representatives from the Franklin County Cattlemen’s Association, the county Farm Bureau, the Pasco Chamber of Commerce and the Tri-Cities Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Each of the commissioners also was able to appoint someone.

And there are two non-voting members — one from the auditor’s office and another from the mapping department.

Tight schedule

The commissioners unanimously agreed to a schedule that would mean the committee would present three map choices to the commissioners at a night meeting Oct. 19.

The commissioners expect to pick their favorite at a meeting Oct. 26.

The three public forums to collect comments from the community are scheduled for Oct. 12-14 from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. They will be held at:

• The HAPO Center at 6600 Burden Blvd. in Pasco on Oct. 12
• Connell High School Gym at 1100 W. Clark Road in Connell on Oct. 13
• Mesa Elementary School Gym at 200 E. Pepiot Road in Mesa on Oct. 14.

The resolution also laid out a set of guidelines the committee needs to follow, including complying with the Washington Voting Rights Act, and getting input about district-only voting.

They also have to balance the districts by population.

The Voting Rights Project argues a large portion of the Latino population is spread across all of the commissioners’ voting districts, making it hard for Latino voters to pick a candidate in the primary.

And if a candidate manages to clear the first hurdle, the person then needs to win in a general election that includes the entire county, rather than voters from just that district.

That has led to a series of candidates supported by Latinos losing in the general election, according to the group.

They say that violates federal and state voting laws. The state allowed counties, cities and other government agencies to fix those issues as part of the 2018 Washington Voting Rights Act.