The redrawing of election district lines for six Louisiana public bodies is under way at the special legislative session and the redistricting process hasn’t changed much over the years. A public official I quoted in 2001 summed up the situation well.

“I’m glad this comes up every 10 years,” he said. “It takes nine years to tell where our voters are.”

The same thing can be said about voters. Ask them to name their state senators and representatives, and the odds are many of them will tell you they aren’t sure.

We can use the Legislature to explain how redistricting works. The state House has 105 members and there are 39 senators. The state’s population after the 2020 U.S. Census was 4,657,468.

Divide that number by 105 and it means each House member should represent 44,359 citizens. Divide the population by 39 and each senator should represent 119,429 people.

It’s always difficult to reach that required number, but deviations of 5 percent below and 5 percent above is acceptable, except for congressional districts that have to be close to the right number.

Although 14 state Senate districts and 39 state House districts have the right population, they may be affected by changes made to those districts that need to be redrawn.

The Legislature after the 1990 census created five senatorial districts in Calcasieu Parish. It came after the death of Sen. Jack Doland of Lake Charles. A senator from Sunset didn’t want his senatorial district to become a minority district, so he reached into Calcasieu to get the numbers he needed.

The result was that one senator represented 67.4 percent of Calcasieu and the other four represented only 14.9, 7.1, 5.8 and 4.8 percent of the parish.

That situation improved in 1997 when the Legislature approved a bill to redraw 19 state senatorial districts. A lawsuit forced the redrawing and Calcasieu was left with three senators, which is the case today.

The big issue after the 2010 Census was Louisiana’s loss of the 7^th Congressional District in this corner of the state because the state lost too much population. A state representative from Napoleonville wanted to create a coastal congressional district, but Calcasieu wasn’t in it.

If that plan had succeeded, Calcasieu would have become part of a new congressional district that would have run along the western part of the state all the way to Shreveport. However, the Louisiana Family Forum had another plan that kept Calcasieu in a new 3^rd Congressional District.

Rep. Brett Geymann, R-Moss Bluff, and former state Rep. Mike Danahay, D-Sulphur, and that city’s current mayor, were on the House committee that had first crack at drawing up election lines. Their efforts and support from other area legislators helped create the new 3^rd District.

Calcasieu also got support from Lafayette. Bruce Conque with the Greater Lafayette Chamber of Commerce talked about keeping common economic, cultural, and other interests between communities together.

“We stay arm-in-arm with the residents of this area,” Conque said at a public redistricting hearing held here. “There’s more than just a linear link between Lafayette and Lake Charles. There’s also a feeling of community.”

That plan pitted former U.S. Reps. Charles Boustany, R-Lafayette, and Jeff Landry, R-New Iberia, and the current state attorney general, in the 3^rd District. The Tea Party of Louisiana at the time didn’t want Calcasieu in the 3^rd District in its effort to help Landry.

Boustany and Landry made the runoff in the Nov. 6, 2012, congressional election. Boustany had 45 percent of the vote to 30 percent for Landry. Boustany won the runoff with 61 percent of the vote.

As you would expect, some legislators and other public officials are always unhappy about the way redistricting turns out because there are winners and losers. Jim Fannin of Jonesboro, a state representative in 2011, said the best legislation sometimes occurs “when nobody’s happy.”

Members of the Legislative Black Caucus were unhappy with the 2011 redistricting session because it didn’t create a second congressional district, which is again their top priority this year.

At the current session, House Speaker Clay Schexnayder, R-Gonzales, state Sen. Sharon Hewitt, R-Slidell, and Senate President Page Cortez, R-Lafayette, have filed maps maintaining the current congressional districts. Democrats in the Senate have co-written eight proposals that include a second majority-Black congressional district.

Whether a second minority district is now possible will primarily depend on where minority citizens are living, but supporters of that district say it can be done. We should know the final answer soon.