Shifting Bounds

Residents in three Santa Fe County precincts, all within the city limits, will now vote in different County Commission districts, following unanimous approval of a redistricting plan by the Board of County Commissioners at its meeting Tuesday afternoon.

Precinct 145 on the Southside is changing from District 2 to District 3; Precinct 29, which crosses the railroad tracks just north of the city limits, moves from District 5 to District 4; and Precinct 30, east of downtown, from District 1 to District 4.

Click here to view the redistricted map.

With a population of 154,823 as of the 2020 Census—an increase of over 10,000 people since 2010—the county would ideally have five commission districts made up of 30,965 people per district, according to a staff presentation prepared for the commission meeting.

Under those guidelines, District 2 contained nearly 2,000 more people than it should and Districts 3 and 4 nearly 2,000 people fewer than they should, prior to the adjustments commissioners approved Tuesday.

“I think that because most of the growth happened in the city, this is a really good solution,” Commissioner Anna Hansen, who represents District 2, said at the meeting.

The changes come as other local and state governments undertake once-a-decade redistricting based on census figures.

On the city front, a resolution convening the Independent Citizens’ Redistricting Commission, charged with creating a redistricting plan for the council districts, is on Wednesday’s City Council meeting agenda.

Voters approved the redistricting commission in 2014. The commission last convened in 2015, ahead of the municipal election the following year, incorporating 13,250 new residents as a result of annexation, according to the resolution.

Last week, the state’s newly formed Citizen Redistricting Committee—tasked with recommending new maps for the Legislature to consider—approved three map concepts for state House districts.

One of the maps came from a coalition of 19 Pueblo communities and the Jicarilla Apache Nation. The group says it emphasizes Native people’s “independent right to self determination.” Another map advanced by Navajo Nation representatives focuses on “retaining Native American majorities of roughly 65% or more in six House districts.”

The third map, from the Center for Civic Policy, reduces the number of House districts in a part of Albuquerque with mostly white, non-Hispanic residents.

The state committee earlier this month also approved map selections for state Senate districts, congressional districts and the state’s Public Education Commission.