Request By:
Mr. Hollie Warford
Anderson County Judge/Executive
Courthouse
Lawrenceburg, Kentucky 40342
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Charles W. Runyan, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
You seek our opinion concerning the redistricting of the magisterial districts in Anderson County. At present, the county is divided into six (6) districts of unequal size; and it is the feeling of the officials that this should be rectified prior to the forthcoming election in 1981 [election of county officials].
Your specific question reads:
"In view of the 1980 Census we wish advice on the manner in which this could be handled, whether or not we are mandated to redistrict this county or could it be postponed until the information from the upcoming census could be taken into consideration or whether we really need to re-district at all as this could be a costly project."
Since you have the magisterial system, KRS 67.045(1) requires that the boundaries of the magisterial districts shall be so drawn so that the population of each district shall be as nearly equal as is reasonably possible.
If you mean that you have districts which are substantially unequal in population, then you would presently be required to initiate reapportionment proceedings under that statute in order to meet the terms of the statute and in order to meet the requirements of the one man, one vote holdings of the Supreme Court of the United States. See Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 12 L. Ed. 2d 506, 84 S. Ct. 1362 (1964); and Avery v. Midland County, 390 U.S. 474, 20 L. Ed. 2d 45, 88 S. Ct. 1114 (1968).
The statute, subsection (2), provides that the justices' districts may be reapportioned any time, but not within one hundred and twenty (120) days prior to any primary election for justice of the peace. The subsection also provides:
"At minimum, the justices' districts of a county shall be reapportioned within six (6) months following the official report to the states of the data from the latest census of population conducted by the United States government."
We have just been informed that the Census Bureau of the United States Department of Commerce has the target date of April 1, 1981, in connection with getting the county and city data (census) to the counties and cities of the several states of the Union. We might point out that April 1, 1981, will be too late to re-district for the 1981 primary, and so it should be done now.
Under these circumstances, it is our opinion that you, as county judge/executive, and considering the substantial disparity in population of these districts, should now initiate a reapportionment of the county's magisterial districts, as covered in KRS 67.045. The census report is so far down the road as to not be a significant factor in your reapportionment situation presently. We do not believe the courts would permit your waiting, as to reapportionment, for the census report.