Hot Spring County Democrats withdraw complaint

The complaint filed in Circuit Court challenging the recently adopted Justice of the Peace redistricting plan is being withdrawn. Tom Dillard and Interim JP Sam Bryant, complainants, decided after additional research and discussions to stop the litigation. However, Dillard and Bryant made clear they still believe the adopted plan could have been improved, and the process made more transparent.

Reapportionment, which is required by law, is a process of redrawing election district boundaries every ten years to ensure that each district has approximately the same population. It is often called “redistricting.”

Given that JP District 1 has a large African American population and has been represented by a black JP, the late Pete Willis, for over 40 years, the Democratic County Committee has a special concern for that district. Given the population and residential patterns, District 1 could easily be redistricted so that the black population constitutes a majority of the total population while forming a cohesive, compact district.

The HSC Election Commission is a governmental agency, and the proceedings of the Commission should be thoroughly transparent. Both Sam Bryant and Tom Dillard called upon the Election Commission to hold public meetings before making major decisions in the future.

Relative to their complaint, Bryant and Dillard pointed out that residents of several counties, including Garland and Pulaski counties, were invited to comment on three plans before a final selection was made. “We should have had a choice also,” Dillard concluded.