| By Bob Weaver
It's time to start gerrymander West Virginia's political districts with the release of the 2010 census numbers coming this week.
The population numbers promises to allow the Legislature the ability to ensure equal representation for the state's three U.S. House districts as well as in its own Senate and House of Delegates.
The WV House of Delegates says it will be using sophisticated computer software for the process.
Redistricting with county voting precints is also part of the process, a process which has caused numbers of Calhoun voters to be shifted to new voting place from their historic location.
Calhoun County Clerk Mike Ritchie, said "With a lot of help, we'll try to maintain the old precincts as much as we can," but precincts must be equalized, sometimes causing a problem for some voters.
While there are suggestions that the public have input to keep communiuties intact within districts, little of that has been in play when it comes to small, rural counties.
A good example is our "local" 2nd Senatorial District which extends to the border of Ohio County (Wheeling) like a snake down to southern Calhoun at the Clay County line, covering parts of or all of Marshall, Monongalia, Marion, Wetzel, Tyler, Doddridge, Ritchie and Calhoun.
The rearranging of US senatorial and house districts and the state senatorial and delegate districts, becomes the work of political masterminds who make the changes to help incumbents stay in control.
Gerrymandering is a practice viewed by many as a form of political corruption that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating geographic boundaries to create partisan, incumbent-protected, and neutral districts.
The practice generally ignores uniform geographic standards.
There is a predicted population shift from the southern portion of the state to the Eastern Panhandle that questions about where the West Virginia Legislature will draw lines for not only themselves, but also the state's three U.S. House of Representative districts.
That shift in population will give the state's Eastern Panhandle more leverage in Charleston, the area could gain two senators and around five House of Delegates members.
Political analyst Robert Rupp says where West Virginians have chosen to live will create a "political hot button" as incumbent members of the House of Delegates and state Senate will be "desperate" to find the population to keep their district intact.
Not only does the Legislature have the power to change the political landscape in Charleston with its redistricting, but the lines they draw could help or hinder future elections of Capito, Rahall and newly, narrowly elected U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-1st District.
An example would be that Democrat delegates and senators may decide that they want to make heavily Democratic counties part of Rep. McKinley's district, which could result in his loss of the seat.
"The amazing thing about redistricting is that this handful of people can virtually do anything they want to as long as the numbers add up," Rupp said.
The new maps should be ready no later than January 2012 in order for county clerks and the secretary of state's office to conduct the May primary election.
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