Denton County Redistricting Information

DENTON COUNTY REDISTRICTING TIMELINE

10/25 - Gov. Abbott signs state redistricting plans

10/26 - Initial Assessment: Commissioners Court holds an initial assessment meeting and adopts guidelines for redistricting plan. Redistricting plan guidelines and timeline made public on dentoncounty.gov.

10/28 – Preliminary redistricting maps made public on dentoncounty.gov with invitation for public input.

11/2 - Public input to be received by Commissioners Court on preliminary redistricting maps.

11/9 - Public input to be received by Commissioners Court on preliminary redistricting maps. Final adoption by Commissioners Court to follow.

11/13 - First day for candidates to file for a place on the general primary election ballot.

11/30 - Public input to be received by Commissioners Court on proposed election precinct maps. Final adoption by Commissioners Court to follow.

DENTON COUNTY REDISTRICTING GUIDELINES

October 26, 2021

Denton County is divided into four Commissioners Court Precincts. Based on the data from the United States Census Bureau that is received every 10 years, these precincts are reexamined and, if necessary, redrawn.

Due to the challenges with the latest census, the 2020 U.S. Census data release was delayed until August 2021. Unfortunately, this delay has resulted in Denton County working within a compressed timeline to adopt new boundaries.

The following guidelines and criteria will be used to develop and evaluate the redistricting plans by Denton County:

In accordance with the United States Constitution and the 14th Amendment, the county must draw new precinct lines to meet the one-person, one vote requirement on the basis of population. A plan should show the total population and voting age population, according to the 2020 U.S. Census Bureau Data, for each commissioner precinct including subtotals for racial/ethnic groups reported by the U.S. Census Bureau. In order to remain in compliance, the most and least populous precincts must have a total population variance of no more than 10%.
Plans shall be constructed to comply with all provisions of the U.S. Constitution and its amendments, as well as the Voting Rights Act. Specifically, plans should meet all requirements of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits the denial or abridgement of the right to vote based on account of race, color, or membership in a language group.
Communities of interest may be considered consistent with the preceding principles. For purposes of this criterion, “community of interest” means any group that shares one or more particularized interests that may be the subject of county policy and thus should be considered for inclusion within a single commissioner precinct for purposes of ensuring that group’s fair and effective representation.
To the extent possible, commissioner precincts should be comprised of whole voting tabulation districts (“VTDs”). Where this is not possible, commissioner precincts should be drawn in a manner that permits the creation of VTDs that ensures for adequate polling place facilities exist within each VTD.
Plans should consider the maintenance of districts, to the extent possible, as previously drawn to ensure that redistricting is least disruptive to communities and the county’s ability to facilitate government functions.
Commissioner precincts should be comprised in such a manner as to incorporate projected growth patterns.