According to county manager Colby Sawyer, Pender County hasn't redrawn its county commission districts since 2010. At that time, the total population sat at 52,217. Today, Sawyer said that number is over 70,000.
"Of course, we can't have a perfect number until the 2030 census," he said. "But we also know that our growth is not evenly distributed, and we know that population shifts do create those imbalances."
Commissioner Brent Springer introduced the resolution. He said that the population growth tended to concentrate in District 1 and District 2 — on the eastern, coastal half of the county. Each coastal district has over 15,000 voters. The other three have less than half of that apiece.
“Right now it’s out of balance," he said. "And so, hopefully we’re gonna make moves to get that corrected.”
But the other commissioners didn't quite agree. Commissioner Brad George said he didn't see the merit in making a change so long as the county stuck to at-large voting. That's when residents get to vote on every seat on the commission, as opposed to only selecting which commissioner should represent their district.
"I just don't understand what we're going to accomplish there if you're still going to have the same people voting the representatives they want in the county," he said.
"If it's not broke," added commissioner Jerry Groves, "don't fix it."
But another point of contention was more partisan in nature. Springer said he wouldn't be interested in doing away with the at-large voting system because of its potential impact on county Republicans.
"The west side is predominantly blue, and the east side is what puts most of us in office," he said. "If you go to a district vote, then you're gonna have potentially a Democrat sitting up here versus a Republican, right?"
Currently, the county commission is all Republican. But Tate and George pushed back on the idea, saying the decision should be left up to voters.
"I think the people in the district should be able to pick their representative and not depend on someone 45 miles away to pick their representative," said George. "It doesn't matter to me if they're Democrats, aliens, or whatever they are, as long as the people in their district support them and they support their people."
The commission voted 3-2 to table the discussion til February 17, with George and Tate dissenting. Any changes to Pender County's commission districts likely wouldn't impact elections until 2028.
