Charlotte City Council voted Monday to adopt a redistricting map that will remove four precincts from District 4.
The motion passed 10-1, and will move precincts 26, 42, 82 and 205 to new districts. This change will move two precincts in the Hidden Valley neighborhood to District 1, a predominantly white district.
Hidden Valley is a mostly Black neighborhood and one of the biggest in the city. Residents preferred to keep the precincts in District 4, where there’s a larger number of Black voters.
“District 1 has voted for all white candidates,” neighborhood resident Cedric Dean said in an Oct. 18 City Council meeting. “District 4 has voted for all Black candidates. We can never be a community of interest with District 1.”
At-large City Council member Braxton Winston voted against the new map on Monday, saying North Carolina is near ground zero of voter disenfranchisement through systemic policies.
"I thought our community had agreed that we need to look at policy development through an equity lens," Winston said. "Tonight marks the abandonment of that equity lens. The committee, staff, consultants have all agreed they did not consider issues of equity in our approach. That is regrettable."
Other council members believe this move is an opportunity for Black residents to have more representation on the council.
The new map is based on data from the 2020 census.