Every ten years, following a decennial census, the U.S. Census Bureau provides the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico with population counts to use in their redrawing of congressional and state legislative boundaries. This redistricting process is applied to local municipalities as well to account for shifts in population. The City of Macon did not redistrict following the 2010 Census (population 5,471), and the 2020 Census data (population 5,457) shows that redistricting is necessary for our community. This process will determine the new boundaries for the four City Council wards based on population.
The redistricting process ensures that the wards from which members of our governing bodies are elected represent the people of the Macon community and that those representations are fair and equitable. Evenly distributing the community by population with a less than 10% deviation between the smallest and largest wards is the acceptable goal. RSMo 77.030 specifies that ward boundaries in third-class cities (Macon) shall be established by ordinance. Best practice criteria for the redistricting process includes (1) population equity; (2) compact districts of contiguous territory; (3) retention of existing neighborhood boundaries; (4) retention of precinct boundaries; (5) cohesion of other existing communities of interest; (6) desire to retain historic boundaries; and (7) consideration of incumbency. Care has been taken to follow the best practice criteria throughout the redistricting project.