CHARLESTON - Early indications seem to point to Wood County seeing little, if any change from the redrawing of West Virginia's congressional and legislative districts, local legislators said.
Having passed the state's $11.4 billion budget Friday, lawmakers are beginning to look toward the political redistricting following last year's census.
The Census Bureau has already revealed West Virginia's statewide population from last year's official count: 1,852,994. That suggests 617,665 residents for each U.S. House district, 18,530 people for each of the 100 delegates and 54,500 residents for each state senator, said officials who met with state legislators last week and who will be overseeing the process.
A time has not been announced yet for the Legislature to take up the issue of redistricting, said Delegate Tom Azinger, R-Wood.
''No date has been set yet,'' he said. ''When the time comes, they will get together and hammer out something until it is compliant with the law.
''It is going to be interesting.''
The House of Delegates approved a motion last Friday for the Speaker of the House to appoint a 30-member redistricting committee to work on the issue while the entire state Senate will be meeting as the committee of the whole to do redistricting when the time comes, said Sen. Donna Boley, R-Pleasants.
''That probably will not be before July,'' she said of state officials wanting to get through the May primary for the special election of governor.
Senators were shown maps of the current districts and official census numbers are expected to be released by the end of the week and lawmakers will begin to see where some changes will have to be made.
Early indications seem to point to the southern part of the state losing population while the eastern panhandle is growing. Some legislators don't believe Kanawha County will maintain its four Senate seats as the area has lost population over the last decade.
Once the new numbers are out, the state could see districts merging to accommodate the lost populations in some areas, said Delegate Dan Poling, D-Wood.
''I don't think much will change in this area,'' he said.
Poling is hopeful Mason County will finally get a delegate district of their own. The county has 24,000-25,000 people, but the county is divided among other districts and no one from the county actually serves the county.
Boley said people have been asking her if there would be any move to make Delegate districts into single member districts to which she hasn't heard if anything would be done with that.
''The House will do theirs and the Senate will do theirs,'' she said.
Poling, who serves in a multi-member district said proponents of the idea see an unfair concentration of voting strength in these districts. However, Poling said he has gone along with and voted with the other 10th district delegates just as much as he has not voted with them.
The last redistricting, in 2001, assigned roughly 602,781 residents to each congressional seat. The latest county-by-county estimates, from July 2010, suggest that the more populous 2nd District must shed or swap at least one county with the northerly 1st District. Re-aligning the 3rd District, based in the southern coalfields, may require greater effort.
The 2nd District cuts across central West Virginia from the Ohio River to the Potomac. It may have gained nearly 40,000 people since the 2000 Census, according to the July 2010 estimate, while the 1st District is down 2,400 residents and the 3rd District has lost more than 20,000 people.
For 2001's redistricting, the 2nd District ceded Gilmer County to the 1st District and Nicholas County to the 3rd District.
Delegate Bill Anderson, R-Wood, said the House committee is expected to have 20 Democrats and 10 Republicans to reflect the political breakdown of the state.
Based on early population numbers, Anderson believes the Eastern Panhandle could gain seats while the southern part of the state might lose some because of where the populations are. There has also been growth in the Morgantown area.
''The numbers will drive where the seats are created,'' he said. ''I don't see much of a difference here as our population numbers appear to have remained static.''
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
