Get Involved

Get Involved

Community involvement and participation is critical to the success of the redistricting plan. The City encourages residents to help in this effort by participating and encouraging others to get involved. The following are some ways to get involved:

  • Attend a Redistricting Commission meeting and consider offering public comment
    • The Redistricting Commission meetings will be held by video conference and at Dallas City Hall – Council Chambers. The public is encouraged to attend the meeting virtually; however, City Hall is available for those wishing to attend the meeting in person following all current pandemic-related public health protocols. The video conference links are updated for each meeting. Please visit the meeting page for a list of the video links.
    • Individuals who wish to speak during the public comment session should register via email at redistrictdallas@gmail.com by 5:00 p.m. the business day prior to the meeting. Please provide the following information: name, residence address, daytime telephone number, and whether you will be attending virtually or in-person. All speakers have three minutes to speak, and virtual speakers are required to show their video in order to address the Commission.
  • Attend a Town Hall meeting community meeting.
  • Offer feedback and suggestions by calling our redistricting hotline at (214) 671-5197.
  • Submit your very own Redistricting Plan
    • Create a district plan for consideration by the Redistricting Committee by using our online mapping tool. Please click here to access the mapping tool with the 2020 census numbers and current district boundaries.

Note: Residents may use create maps for submission using any other ESRI compatible software that use shapefile format, for example ArcGIS and Maptitude. Once the map is created, residents may submit it here.

Mapping Requirements:

  • The districts shall be substantially equal in population according to the total population count as presented in the census data, except where deviation is required to comply with federal law or is allowable by law.
  • Maximum Deviation in population between districts should not be greater than 10%.
  • There shall be no discrimination on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, when drawing the districts, and the voting strength of racial, ethnic, and language minorities in the districts shall not be diluted to deprive minority voters of an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
  • The districts shall be geographically compact, to the extent possible, and composed of contiguous territory
  • The reconfiguration of districts shall be neutral as to incumbents or potential candidates.
  • Communities of interest shall be placed in a single district and attempts should be made to avoid splitting neighborhoods, where possible without violating the other requirements.
  • The Redistricting Commission will only consider maps that include a comprehensive plan with a complete complement of the City’s 14 districts and comply with the above requirements.

Plan Submission requirements
Once you have created a comprehensive map plan you can do the following:

  • Save the plan. If you do not want to save your comprehensive map plan to your local device, the plan is still saved and you will receive a link where you can access and edit your plan.
  • Share your plan on the Map Gallery. Once you have shared your comprehensive map plan to the Map Gallery, it will be visible to all who access the Map Gallery on the City’s Redistricting Commission’s website. Note that sharing it to the Map Gallery does NOT mean that the comprehensive map plan has been submitted. You MUST complete the next step to submit it electronically.
  • Submit a plan. When you are ready for the redistricting commission to review your comprehensive map plan, you MUST submit your plan to the following email address: redistrictdallas@gmail.com

Please note, your plan will not be reviewed by the commission, until your plan is submitted and it satisfies the Redistricting Best Practices below.
Contact your Redistricting Commissioner if you have any questions.

Redistricting Best Practices

  • Apply the 2020 Census to existing districts to determine if those districts are out of population balance. The districts shall be substantially equal in population according to the total population count as presented in the census data, except where deviation is required to comply with federal law or is allowable by law.
  • In addition to the requirements of federal law, there shall be no discrimination on the basis of race, color, or membership in a language minority group, and the voting strength of racial, ethnic, and language minorities in the districts shall not be diluted to deprive minority voters of an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
  • The districts shall be geographically compact, to the extent possible, and composed of contiguous territory.
  • The reconfiguration of districts shall be neutral as to incumbents or potential candidates.
  • Communities of interest shall be placed in a single district and attempts should be made to avoid splitting neighborhoods, where possible.