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TAB 4 <br />GENERAL HOUSEKEEPING <br />Some attention should be given to "straightening" political boundaries into more <br />uniform shape. In some cases, certain boundaries may be altered to use a more commonly <br />understood or recognized physical boundary in lieu of a poorly identified or recognized <br />boundary. Public Law 94-171, which directed the Census Bureau to develop a uniform <br />mapping and demographic profiling approach for use by small computers, required that all <br />voter tabulation districts (VTDs) follow census block boundaries. In many cases, City <br />wards had been previously drawn in a manner that did not follow a census block boundary. <br />This required the State of Texas, acting in conjunctioii with the State Data Center and the <br />Texas Legislative Council, to move the actual voting district boundary to coincide with a <br />nearby census block boundary for tabulation purposes only. The resulting VTD was no <br />longer "actual," but an approximation referred to as a"pseudo-voting district." <br />Every reasonable effort has been made to conform the pseudo voting district to <br />actual political boundaries. However, due to the nature of the available data base, and the <br />requirements of Public Law 94-171, there may be occasions in which the pseudo voting <br />districts, or the resulting lines between City Council Wards, are different from those that <br />actually exist Again, the use of the pseudo voting district was for tabulation purposes only, <br />and any apparent difference between actual and apparent political lines should be considered <br />as minimaL However, since all later census counts will be undertaken upon the census <br />blocks, there could be a valid arguinent that a necessity to alter current election district <br />boundaries to match the census block format exists. Under these circumstances, new <br />political lines will be required to avoid conflict with census block lines that do not match <br />current political area definitions. While matching census blocks to actual political lines <br />would not, in and of itself, generally support a decision to reapportion under the <br />circumstances that exist in the City of Paris, there is a justifiable combination of factors that <br />would support a reapportionment decision. These factors would include: <br />1. Redrawing election precincts to increase voter convenience. <br />2. Harmonizing actual political lines with pseudo voting districts based upon <br />census blocks. <br />3. Redrawing all lines to achieve "one-person-one-vote" deviations of the smallest <br />possible percentage. <br />Initial Assessment <br />Page 8 ot'9 <br />3LV-o <br />