Memphis City Council members are running behind their latest timeline to approve a new set of district lines for this year’s city elections.

The council tries Tuesday to take the first of three votes on a redistricting plan, a week after it planned to take the first reading.

It has two options, each ordinance sponsored by different coalitions of council members.

Memphis City Council delays first redistricting vote despite deadline

The options are:

• The creation of a Cordova district in what is now the East Memphis District 2. East Memphis would become part of District 5. The shift also would create a predominantly Raleigh District 1, which currently runs south into Cordova. All of Downtown would become part of District 7 instead of being split with District 6.
• The movement of one precinct in the northeast corner of District 5 to District 2, which would remain primarily an East Memphis district.

The council could consider and vote on both ordinances, at least for the first reading, and then make a decision on one of the two by the third reading at its June 13 meeting.

Councilman Chase Carlisle, one of the sponsors of the second option, argued at the April 25 council session that the body should keep the changes to a minimum after making a few modifications to the map for last year’s District 4 special election.

“We moved three precincts for a single member who was running in a special election,” he said. “If the mapping is off … it can be fixed by moving one precinct from (District) 5 to (District) 2, not wholesale changes.”

Memphis City Council reaches now-or-never moment on redistricting

Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas says District 7, which she represents, saw larger changes because of an ongoing population shift out of that district and District 6 – the two areas along the city’s western Mississippi River border.

“It’s not a product of what you said, which was to correct something that either is or is not correct,” she told Carlisle. “There were a lot of changes with precincts moved beyond those lines in District 4.”

The council will discuss the two proposals at the 2:45 p.m. executive session.

If it sticks to the schedule of three votes on the matter ending at the first meeting in June, it would give final approval to new council district lines past the May 22 start of candidates pulling and filing qualifying petitions for the October elections.

The Shelby County Election Commission has told council attorney Allan Wade that April 15 is its deadline for the council to approve new district lines or leave them the way they are. Election Commission officials have said they need time to ensure that voters moved in redistricting get the right ballot.

“We’re still rushing, and it didn’t need to be and it shouldn’t have been that way.”

Memphis City Councilman Worth Morgan

Candidates in the city races have until noon July 20 to file their petitions to get on the ballot.

In the event that candidates find themselves drawn into new districts, Council Chairman Martavius Jones has said they would have plenty of time to pull new petitions.

Councilman Worth Morgan says the changes in the first option show “a lot being moved.”

“We’re still rushing, and it didn’t need to be and it shouldn’t have been that way,” he said.