First Congressional District Bill Amended

State Sen. Johnny Key (R-Mountain Home) amended his SB 981 to outline how he envisions redrawing Arkansas’ four Congressional Districts. The bill would only split one county – Franklin County – between the Third and Fourth Districts.

Under Key’s bill, the First District would include:

Baxter, Clay, Cleburne, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Fulton, Greene, Independence, Izard, Jackson, Lawrence, Lee, Lonoke, Marion, Mississippi, Poinsett, Randolph, St. Francis, Searcy, Sharp, Stone, Van Buren, White, and Woodruff counties.

The Second District would include:

Conway, Faulkner, Newton, Perry, Pope, Pulaski, Saline, and Yell counties.

The Third District would include:

Benton, Boone, Carroll, Crawford, Johnson, Madison, Sebastian, and Washington counties, as well as a portion of Franklin County, which would be split with the Fourth.

The Fourth District would include:
 
Arkansas, Ashley, Bradley, Calhoun, Chicot, Clark, Cleveland, Columbia, Dallas, Desha, Drew, Garland, Grant, Hempstead, Hot Spring, Howard, Jefferson, Lafayette, Lee, Little River, Lincoln, Logan, Miller, Monroe, Montgomery, Nevada, Ouachita, Phillips, Pike, Polk, Prairie, Scott, Sevier, and Union counties, as well as additional portions of Franklin County.

You can read the full bill at this link.

Ideal Congressional District sizes in Arkansas would entail 731,557 residents in each of the four districts. Arkansas’ First and Fourth Districts need to gain about 50,000 and 75,000 citizens respectively. The Second and Third Districts need to lose about 15,000 and 110,000 respectively.

What would the map look like? Click here for a pdf version of the redrawn lines.