Stokes to draw names for redistricting commission

Austin City Auditor Corrie Stokes will conduct a random drawing at 10 a.m. this Saturday, Jan. 23 to select the first eight members of the city’s new Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission. The drawing will be livestreamed on various devices, including Spectrum Cable channel 6 and Facebook. Stokes conducted a random drawing last October to select the three-member Applicant Review Panel – Abigael McClean, William Cooper and James Christianson – whose job it was to select the 60 most qualified applicants for the redistricting commission. Stokes said in a prepared statement, “I commend the excellent work of the Applicant Review Panel. Not only did they select a list of applicants that represent the diversity of Austin, but they also provided an equal representation from each of the city’s 10 Council districts.” Before the random drawing, Stokes will send a list of applicants to Mayor Steve Adler and City Council and give each Council member the opportunity to strike up to one person from the list. Stokes will select the first eight members of the commission and those commissioners will select the remaining six members for a total of 14. It will be their job to redraw the boundaries of the 10 current Council districts. They are expected to finish the job by the end of November so the districts are in place for an election in November 2022. All of this assumes that there are no radical changes to the city’s system of government, such as putting a strong mayor system in place and adding an 11th district.