Pender Co. commissioners debate redrawing district maps after decade of population uptick

PENDER COUNTY, NC (WWAY-TV) – Pender County commissioners are debating on whether to re-draw the county’s district maps which would be implemented after the 2028 primary election.

It’s been more than a decade since the county last re-drew its voting districts.

“I would like to see the districts left alone, like they are,” said Kennedy Ramsey, a longtime Pender County resident.

Ramsey attended last week’s commissioners board when commissioner Brent Springer proposed the board move forward with drawing up new lines for the county’s districts. Springer says the county is now out of balance since the last re-draw in 2012.

“We have a limited number of people that vote and so if we can get those districts re-drawn for the county and not for any other reason other than statutorily that’s the right thing to do,” Springer said.

A presentation by county manager, Colby Sawyer during the meeting last week showed that from 2010 to 2024 more than 17,000 new residents moved to Pender County. By 2030, the county expects to see an additional 5,000 new residents, Springer and Sawyer said the uptick in population calls for a new district map.

Pender County operates in residency districts, not electoral districts, meaning commissioners are elected to serve all residents county-wide in at-large elections.

“I think it’s fair to wonder does the current system, how it’s set up for the districts and electing individuals does that adequately represent where people are at now,” said Dr. Aaron King, political science professor at UNCW.

King said that Pender County is a unique case and that the general principle is typically one vote, one person and that everyone should be represented equally in an election. That’s not the case in Pender County with residency districts.

Commissioner Brad George brought up that the county should implement district voting instead of at-large voting to better a follow a one person, one vote model. Springer is against that.

“The reason why I’m opposed to that is everybody ought to have a say in who their people are county-wide versus this district over here is going to be one party and this district over is gonna be the other party,” Springer said.

Ramsey, a resident in Springer’s district sees it differently.

“I’ve never been asked to who’s going to be governor of Virginia or South Carolina, we vote for our own and that’s what we need to do in the county,” Ramsey said.

Commissioners voted 3-2 to Springer’s proposal, Brad George and Jimmy Tate dissented.

“That’s an aggressive time frame,” Tate said during the meeting.

Tate brought up concerns saying that this proposal is being rushed. Springer has pushed back and says now is the time instead of waiting another four years for 2030 census data.

“I feel like staff can uphold the timelines that we set for them, I don’t think this is above and beyond and would stress them out than they already are,” Springer said.

If the board does go through with this proposal, the new map wouldn’t go into effect until after the 2028 primary election.

“The goal in any of these representations is to ensure that the elected officials are adequately representing the needs of their constituents,” Springer said.

Sawyer says it will ask for public input before approving any changes and will host workshops before a new voting map is adopted.