With one week left before the city’s deadline, Mobile City Council members still could not lock down the five votes needed to approve a new redistricting map — and if none passes by August 12, Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s plan takes effect automatically.
Three maps were now before the council. The first came from Stimpson in February and would make District 7 the city’s fourth majority-minority district, with close to 51% of its registered voters being Black. The mayor defended it as a collaborative product built from individual meetings with each councilman and public input, meeting all legal requirements. Community groups and some council members, however, argued the share should be higher.
Stand-Up Mobile put forward a second map, raising District 7’s Black voting-age share to 53% without annexation, so the district’s Black community could elect a candidate of its choice. When that map failed to win a 5-0 majority of the seven-member council, District 4’s Ben Reynolds and District 1’s Cory Penn proposed a third: similar to the community coalition’s 53% target, but shifting certain neighborhoods between districts to bridge Stimpson’s map and Stand-Up Mobile’s.
Reynolds said consensus around his plan would show the city could move beyond racial division to do what is best for Mobile. Co-sponsor William Carroll added that because Mobile is a majority-minority city, residents simply want representation to match population.
Residents weighed in at Tuesday’s meeting as well; one, Darlene Martin, urged passage of the coalition map “with no strings attached” tied to the coming annexation.
The council scheduled a vote on the newest map for August 9.