Legislature: Slate for 2011 finally set
OK. Voters finally know the lineup. The ballot is set and the candidates are beginning to campaign in earnest for the 2011 state elections.
Wednesday was the final qualifying deadline for those seeking Mississippi’s 174 House and Senate seats in the Legislature. The deadline normally would have been in March, but was delayed awaiting new information from the 2010 census, which was to be used to draw new district lines in line with population changes. Of course, lawmakers could not complete that task, due to partisan disagreements, and the matter went before federal judges who ordered the election be conducted under the existing districts.
That means legislative candidates will be running under districts drawn a decade ago with some districts having more voters than an equally apportioned district and some will have fewer. Not only does that fly in the face of the one-person, one-vote principle, the demographic changes in those districts would affect the upcoming elections and who ultimately will represent those House and Senate districts.
Clarion Ledger
6/3/11
Magnolia Tribune
