- January 17, 2025
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by: Gary Davidson
Community Information, Volusia County Government
With the country’s population count for the 2020 Census now completed, Volusia County is turning its attention to the mandatory redrawing of the boundary lines for its five County Council districts.
County Attorney Mike Dyer briefed council members on Tuesday, Jan. 19, about the reapportionment process and the decisions that will need to be made along the way. The county’s home rule charter requires the county to go through redistricting every 10 years after each national Census. The goal is to ensure that all five council districts remain contiguous and as equal in population is possible.
The Volusia County School Board will be going through the same process, and one of the first decisions the County Council made on Jan. 19 was to invite the School Board to collaborate with the county in redrawing their district maps. The new district maps will be used in the 2022 elections. The council also decided Jan. 19 to follow a similar process that the county established in its last redistricting following the 2010 Census. That will include plenty of opportunities for public input, with workshop discussions and the posting of proposed maps in county buildings and online. County Chair Jeff Brower said the goals should be to ensure the public’s involvement and making voting information as simple as possible.
“It obviously needs to be as easy as possible for people to vote and be involved in the system and understand it,” said Brower. “I think this motion covers council workshops and community input so the general population is invited to participate. And they will not be left out.”
Some of the other goals that the council established Jan. 19 to guide the process included preserving municipal boundaries when possible, keeping intact large concentrations of minority populations and ensuring that no two sitting council members end up in the same district. The council also made it a goal to avoid splitting communities that have geographically connected populations and share common social and economic interests. Examples cited on Jan. 19 included Midtown Daytona Beach, the Spring Hill community in DeLand, the Pierson-Seville area and the Enterprise-Osteen area.
After the council reapportioned its districts 10 years ago, the population in the five districts ranged from 98,043 to 100,212. Based on preliminary estimates from the new Census, the population of the five council districts are expected to be around 110,000. The deadline to complete reapportionment is six months after the federal government formally publishes the Census, which could happen in March. By charter, the council must approve the district map by at least two-thirds vote of the full council, or at least five of the seven members.
