Mississippi county map with photo of Jackson County Administration Building (from county website)
- Nearly every voting district in Mississippi, from city council to congressional seats, has been drawn under the prior understanding of Section 2.
While legislative, congressional and state Supreme Court redistricting all appear to be in the works following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Callais v. Louisiana, county level mid-decade redistricting in Mississippi does not seem to be top of mind for local Boards of Supervisors heading into the 2027 election cycle.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Callais determined racial gerrymandering to be unconstitutional as it had been practiced under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The decision raised the evidentiary bar for proving a violation of the Voting Rights Act, requiring proof of actual discriminatory intent in drawing voting districts.
Nearly every voting district in Mississippi, from city council to congressional seats, has been drawn under the prior understanding of Section 2. Black voting age population was given precedence over simple population totals and other factors, such as communities of interest and logical geographical boundaries, when setting voting districts.
In the years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, consultants and law firms have been paid handsomely by local governments to ensure they complied with Section 2 as it was enforced by the U.S. Department of Justice, particularly where it concerned drawing majority-minority voting districts.
It is now widely believed that Governor Tate Reeves (R) will call a special session this fall for lawmakers to redistrict House and Senate districts before qualifying begins on January 2, 2027. The move would allow lawmakers to take corrective action on districts that were drawn using racial motivations, including those forced by a federal court in 2025 which resulted in special elections in the Pine Belt and North Mississippi. Lawmakers would then likely take up congressional and judicial redistricting during the 2027 legislative session.
Yet, at least for now, county officials polled by Magnolia Tribune are largely not planning to follow suit and unwind 60 years of racial gerrymandering used to set Supervisor and other county level voting districts ahead of January 2 when qualifying opens. This means despite the Callais ruling, candidates could run in voting districts that were drawn under the now unconstitutional premise used to set those boundaries.
There is also no serious talk around the Capitol of lawmakers seeking to mandate that counties redistrict in the wake of Callais.
Brian Fulton, County Administrator for Jackson County, said the Board of Supervisors in his area has not discussed redistricting the county as a result of the Callais ruling.
“[That is] not to say that they won’t, but there has been no effort to pursue it to date,” Fulton said, adding that the county went through an extensive redistricting process a few years back which garnered a lot of public involvement.
Lowndes County Administrator James Fisher said his Board of Supervisors “does not plan to redistrict” ahead of the next election cycle. He said there is “no requirement or need to redistrict prior to [the] next Census.”
“If the State were to mandate [counties to redistrict], we would comply, but otherwise would redistrict at [the] normal 10-year interval following [the] 2030 Census,” Fisher said.
Madison County issued a statement on the question of redistricting that said “it is the policy of the Madison County Board of Supervisors to comply with all federal court decisions, state court decisions, as well as any approved state legislative guidelines on the topic.”
“Whether the board will determine its own district lines in the future is a matter which will be considered by the board,” Heath Hall, spokesman for Madison County, added.
Craig Slay, the Board Attorney for the Rankin County Board of Supervisors, simply said his Board had no comment on the matter.
Other county administrators and officials polled by Magnolia Tribune voiced similar sentiments as those who spoke on record.
