OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma House and Senate will host 18 ‘town hall’ meetings about redistricting, beginning in December. Nine of the meetings will be hosted by the House of Representatives and nine by the Oklahoma Senate.
Redistricting – the process of drawing boundaries for legislative and congressional seats – is required once every 10 years. The boundaries, legislative leaders said, are developed using U.S. Census data.
Two meetings are set for southwestern Oklahoma.
The Senate will host a redistricting town hall at the Grady County Fairgrounds in Chickasha at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 10. A meeting hosted by the House of Representatives will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 11, at the Comanche County Farm Bureau, 502 SW 11th, in Lawton.
Lawmakers said the meetings will provide an overview of the legislative redistricting process and cover redistricting principles. At each meeting, the public will have the chance to make public comments about the redistricting of legislative districts and congressional districts.
“Collaboration between the House and Senate on these meeting locations and dates ensures we can cover more ground. It also means that regardless of whether it’s a ‘House meeting’ or ‘Senate meeting,’ the public can offer comments about the redistricting of all legislative districts and congressional districts,” Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, said. Paxton is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting. He said lawmakers want to have an open and transparent redistricting process in the Senate.
“The public meetings are a part of the plan to ensure the public’s participation in that process,” he said.
House Redistricting Chairman, Rep. Ryan Martinez, an Edmond Republican, said the meetings were the bread and butter of the legislature’s public driven redistricting process.
“All Oklahomans can and should participate to take ownership of the process determining what their districts look like for the next decade,” Martinez said in a media statement. “The House and the Senate are prioritizing transparency and participation from all Oklahomans to produce the best districts for the people.”
Both lawmakers said the meetings would be live-streamed as facility abilities allow, archived and posted online. The meetings will also follow the pandemic protection protocols of the hosting facility.