If you want to find common ground among nearly half of the candidates running for Memphis City Council this year, ask them if the voters they encounter understand the concept of the city council super district.

They may differ on economic development issues and how many police officers are enough. But they all seem to agree that voters don’t understand how the super districts work and which super district they live in.

Many council contenders in both the super district and single-member district council races are making it a point to tell voters they encounter that each voter cast ballots for four city council members – one single-member district council member and three super district council members.

But in our conversations with council candidates on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast – incumbents, challengers and those running for open seats – all have said voters don’t seem to understand how council representation works.

“The average person has no idea. I didn’t either until a few years ago,” council contender Frank Johnson said.

Johnson, who is running for Super District 8 Position 2, says he’s encountered voters who sometimes ignore the super district races because they don’t understand what they are.

Politics Podcast: City council contender Frank Johnson

“When you vote for your city council person, you are not expecting to vote for four people,” he said. “It’s part of gerrymandering. It’s meant be confusing.”

Incumbent council member Ford Canale wasn’t willing to call it gerrymandering.

“At the end of the day, we want equity and we want fairness for every Memphian,” he said of the redrawing of council district lines to come in the council’s next term of office once the 2020 U.S. Census is in. The council draws the district lines for its districts.

Politics Podcast: City Councilman Ford Canale

But Canale agrees with Johnson that the super districts are a mystery to voters and an arduous piece of political turf.

“We have half the city,” he said. “To try to cover that much ground on foot would be almost impossible. I knock on doors and we make phone calls and we have volunteers out asking for people to support us. But you have to be able to raise money to reach voters through media.”

Mauricio Calvo, who is challenging Canale for Super District 9 Position 2, has advocated abolishing the two super districts and making the council a set of 13 single-member districts.

Here is the Ballot Basics explanation of Memphis City Council Super Districts:

There are two City Council Super Districts – District 8 and District 9. Each has three positions or seats. And each district covers roughly half of the city of the Memphis.

The city is covered twice by the 13 council seats – once by the six Super District seats and again by the seven single-member District seats.

In the super districts, there are separate elections for each of the three positions. So when you see a campaign sign or campaign literature, the position number is important to tell who is in what race.

The Shelby County Election Commission and City Council websites list all of the districts you live in, including your single-member council district and your super district by going here and putting in your address. Your single member council district will be number 1-7 and your super district will be numbered either 8 or 9.

Going to the election commission website is the best way to find out which super district you are in. The maps you will find on the city’s website and other places are usually not detailed enough to find where you live. Maps aren’t really how politicos and election officials process the electoral landscape in this case. They tend to look at which precincts are in or out of a district. Precinct by precinct also allows them to look at voter turnout and the demographics of voters.

The super districts were created by a 1991 federal court ruling that made headlines because it abolished the runoff provision for citywide positions, most notably mayor, just before the Memphis elections that year. U.S. District Judge Jerome Turner also abolished the six at-large or citywide city council seats.

He ruled that, like the runoff provision, the at-large seats were put in the city charter that created the mayor-council form of government in order to dilute the voting strength of African Americans who were then a minority of the city’s population.

Turner left it to the council to determine what would replace the at-large council seats in the 1995 city elections. The council decided to create two super districts, each taking in half of the city and each with three elected positions.

They drew the boundary so that Super District 8 would have a majority African American population and District 9 would have a majority white population. Since its inception, all three positions in Super District 8 have been held by African American Memphians and all three positions in Super District 9 have been held by white Memphians.

Several of the Super District races on the October ballot features candidates whose election would change the racial makeup of the Super District representation.

Of the 53 city council candidates running in this year’s Memphis elections, 26 are running in the council’s two super districts.

Just for fun, imagine you have decided to travel the borderline between the two Super Districts. Your journey would involve some interstate driving, hopping freight cars, dodging railroad police in at least one freight yard, canoeing a river, walking an entire greenline as well as a few backyards. And be prepared for some sharp turns on neighborhood streets as well as going through several cul de sacs.

The borderline starts from the north with the railroad line that separates Frayser from Raleigh, with Frayser in Super District 8 and Raleigh in Super District 9. The line then veers west along Frayser Boulevard to Mountain Terrace, where it goes south again for a few blocks.

Then a few blocks east on Whitney Avenue, north on Rangeline until you pick up Whitney going east again. The line goes past Whitney’s dead end and across the railroad tracks, picks up Whitney again and goes south on New Allen Road, which turns into Warford Street, crosses Interstate 40 and follows the Wolf River east to Highland.

The line moves south on Highland and heads west again, following the railroad tracks that run parallel to Chelsea Avenue, but then part ways. You stay with the tracks. The boundary picks up at Warford again, going south and then east on Jackson Avenue to Springdale, where the line goes north a few blocks, before going south and west on the Vollintine Evergreen Greenline all the way to its western terminus.

The border then goes south on North Watkins, east for a few blocks on Union Avenue, south on Willett, and then east on the railroad tracks starting just east of Lamar Avenue, then picking up Central Avenue to a bit further east.

The Super District boundary takes three stairsteps off Central south to follow the rail line and rail yard bordering Southern Avenue. It follows Greer south and then east on Park Avenue, with a long plunge south on Getwell Road, Lamar Avenue, Old Lamar Avenue and Hungerford Road, before leveling off by going east on East Raines Road.

Here’s where it starts to get complex: The line goes off the road and north between Van Tech Drive and Willow Lake Boulevard, emerging on Winchester Road to go east, Clarke Road north, west on Scottsdale, north on Spencer, west on Knight Arnold, south on Clearbrook and east on Chuck.

Go north on Perkins and east on Interstate 240, jump on Bill Morris Parkway going southeast and follow Mount Moriah Extended to Kirby Road, where you go south. Take Winchester east for a block and then south on Ross Road, east on Valley Bend, south on Big Chimney, east on Rockingham Road. Then take Riverdale south for a few blocks and go east on East Shelby Drive until you are at the city limits.

Don’t assume that because you and your neighbor are in the same single-member council district that you are both in the same super district. The super district border divides council districts 1,3,4 and 7. Council districts 2, 5 and 6 are all completely within one super district or the other – 2 and 5 are within Super District 9 – District 6 is in Super District 8.

The last day to register to vote in the Memphis elections, if you aren’t already registered, is Sept. 3. Early voting is Sept. 13-28. Election day in Memphis is Oct. 3.