The bills creating new voting maps in Tennessee are now clear to go to the governor for his signature. The state Senate put the last piece down in the jigsaw puzzle this afternoon.

The maps – for congressional districts as well as the state Senate and state House, were made public Tuesday afternoon. By three o’clock today, the clerks were typing up the final version to send to the governor.

Representative Steve McDaniel, who chaired the Republican committee that drafted the bills over the summer, said that timeline wasn’t too short.

“It’s been a long, hard road to get to here, today, beginning last summer. We came through the process. Every member had an opportunity to have input into the district lines, and as we came through the committees, everyone spoke until everyone had their say.”

The last changes, made this morning, gave new life to Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle, who would have been thrown into an unwinnable district in the original plan.

Now Kyle will be in the same district with another Democratic senator, Beverly Marrero. The question is whether the two will face each other in the August primary elections, or will one drop out.

In a move that has become the handshake on the deal this session, the Republicans required Kyle to vote for the redistricting plan even though other Democrats voted against.

WEB EXTRA
Precinct-level plans showing the latest changes were not available on the Internet as we report this story.

Another change in district lines gave more of Chattanooga to Democratic Senator Andy Berke.

Democrats say that change is only a matter of keeping traditional neighborhoods together.

Redistricting is necessary every 10 years, after the federal census is carried out.
Here are the figures that would be perfect for districts after the 2010 census:
Tennessee’s population: 6.34 million
• 33 Senate district should have 192,306 citizens each
• 99 state House districts should have 64,102 citizens each
• Nine U.S. Congressional districts should have 705,123 citizens each.

Mappers were trying to draft districts while splitting as few counties as possible, with a population variance of plus-or-minus 5 percent.

If the new plan is challenged in court it is expected to focus on under-representation of black Tennesseans.

For instance, African-Americans made up a little more than 16 percent of the population of the state in 2010. By proportion, that would indicate that blacks might hold five seats in the 33-seat Senate.

The new Senate districts are drawn so that four districts are “majority-minority,” or have a voting majority of African-Americans.

Voting plans are not required to have strict rules for representing blacks, or other minorities, or women. But significant under-representation, or fanciful lines that cut majority black communities into three or four districts where they are out-voted by whites, have been used to bring court cases in the past.