Lincoln County to remain in the 9th District

DAVENPORT–Lincoln County will remain in the 9th Legislative District after the state Supreme Court declined to redraw new legislative maps that could have placed Lincoln County back in District 13 in a decision made Dec. 3.

Lincoln County had been in the 13th District for the previous 10 years but was moved to the 9th Legislative District after a 2021 redistricting process that occurs every 10 years following new census data.

The 9th Legislative District covers rural areas like Adams, Asotin, Franklin, Garfield, and Whitman and portions of Spokane Counties. The district borders Oregon to the south and Idaho to the East.

State Senator Mark Schoesler of Ritzville, Rep. Mary Dye of Pomeroy and Rep. Joe Schmick of Colfax, all Republicans, represent the 9th Legislative District.

Schoesler has represented the 9th District since 2005, Dye has been representing District 9 since 2015 and Schmick has been representing District 9 since 2007.

The county's last redistricting process occurred in 2011, when it was combined with most of Grant County, Kittitas County, and a small portion of Yakima County into the 13th District.

The 13th Legislative District now covers Kittitas, Grant, and part of Yakima as of 2021.

Redistricting is a process of changing the boundaries of voting districts so that all districts have approximately the same number of people to ensure all the citizens are equally represented in government.

Every 10 years, after the federal government publishes updated census information, a redistricting committee redraws the boundaries of the congressional and state legislative electoral districts. Each of the four commissioners, two Democrats and two Republicans, released their proposed redistricting maps in Sept. 2021.

When the rough drafts of the maps were available, Lincoln County had been within the redrawn map lines. While Lincoln County is small, the population has increased and geographically coincides with multiple districts.

However, the four voting commissioners on the Redistricting Commission were unable to achieve a redistricting plan by their Nov. 15 deadline, which had not happened before in Washington.

The decision then went to the state Supreme Court, which had a deadline of April 30 to draw or approve new district maps.

Commissioner-approved maps were amended on Feb. 8.

Schmick said the maps that are available are final unless there is an update before May.

He added that broadband Internet expansion has allowed more people to move to rural counties, which was a large factor in the redistricting process.

"Work from home jobs make it easier to live in a rural community," Schmick said. "With that brings more population."

The state has 49 legislative districts and contains approximately 138,000 people per district. Federal census data reported a total population of 6,724,540 and 10 districts. The 5th Congressional District, which includes Lincoln County, contains approximately 670,000 residents.

The level of public involvement was historic for Washington State.

Public outreach had been successful in soliciting the public for their input. The State Redistricting Commission had 17 public outreach programs; 22 business meetings, with more than 400 state residents who delivered live public testimony about the maps or the Commission's processes.

According to Washington.Gov, over 2,700 comments were made on their draft maps or their old maps. More than 3,000 emails were sent, comments were made through the website form, mailed a letter, or left a voicemail.

COVID-19 delayed the normal process of data collection by several months. This also led to delays in data processing and the delivery of the data required.