Comal County Judge Sherman Krause on Nov. 4 presented the proposed boundary lines during a public hearing, and the commissioners voted in favor of the plan during a Nov. 9 meeting.
The county has a population of 161,501 residents, according to census data, and the plan will reallocate a portion of Precinct 2 to Precinct 1 in an effort to better balance the total population in each district.
In order to balance each precinct, the population of all four precincts would need to be at or near 40,375 residents, Krause said.
“That's to make sure that we don't have citizens that are overrepresented or citizens that are underrepresented,” Krause said. “It really follows the principle of one person, one vote.”
According to state law, the difference in population between the most-populated and the lowest-populated precincts cannot exceed 10%.
Precinct 1 has 37,365 residents, and Precinct 2 has 42,925 residents, representing a 13.77% difference between the two. Precinct 3 has 40,401 residents, and Precinct 4 has a population of 40,810.
By redistricting a portion of Precinct 2 into Precinct 1, Krause said the districts will be more equally balanced.
The area to be moved is in the western portion of the county near Fair Oaks Ranch.
Precincts 3 and 4 will remain the same, Krause said, to maintain existing election precincts and communities of interest.
