Proposal for Abbeville’s redistricting map moves on from committee

Officials with the city of Abbeville took a step toward approving a new district voting map, which they said will be in accordance with federal and state law.
However, that step doesn’t go far enough to guarantee Abbeville residents equal voting power, according to representatives of a pair of civil rights organizations, the Vermilion Parish Branch of the NAACP and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). 
During an ordinance committee meeting on Tuesday, members of the Abbeville City Council voted unanimously to bring a redistricting map to the table for approval at a future regular city council meeting. That does not mean the city’s proposed map has been finalized.
“What this committee did is get council approval to send that ordinance to the full council for action at a later meeting,” Councilman Brady Broussard Jr. said following the conclusion of the committee meeting.
The city council previously approved a map in December of 2022. Local governments are required to redistrict after each U.S. Census. The ‘20 Census showed that Abbeville had a population of 11,186, a little more than 1,000 fewer than the ‘10 census. Populations in each district must be similar, within an ideal range, to ensure equal representation. The city reused the district map from ‘10. The SPLC, on behalf of the Vermilion NAACP, filed a lawsuit in October of ‘23 to block that map because it said the map violated the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution’s One-Person, One-Vote requirement.
Abbeville’s current district map breaks down to:
• District A ( Councilman Tony Hardy) - 2,710 residents
• District B (Councilman Francis Plaisance) - 3,086
• District C (Councilman Brady Broussard Jr.) - 2,544
• District D (Councilwoman Terry Broussard) - 2,846
That is a 19.3% deviation from the ideal, said to the SPLC. The city’s proposed map, approved during the committee meeting on Tuesday, would create a 6.3% deviation from the ideal. That would include:
• District A - 2,864
• District B - 2,788
• District C - 2,688
• District D - 2,846
Jordan Henagan, an attorney with Borne Wilkes and Rabalais, is representing the city in the litigation. She said this map falls within an allowable percentage deviation.
“This map remedies some of the issues that the court saw with our prior city council district map,” Henagan said. “I feel that a judge would certainly determine that it is constitutional.”
Ahmed Soussi, a senior staff attorney with the SPLC, said more can be done. A map proposed by the SPLC and the Vermilion NAACP brings the deviation from the ideal to 1.1% by breaking each district down by the following:
• District A - 2,816
• District B - 2,792
• District C - 2,783
• District D - 2,795
“This map is a perfect proportionality map,” Soussi said. “We sent that in September (‘23), and asked the council to consider it when redistricting. We don’t want to sue. As a lawyer, I like to litigate, but what I care about is making sure that everyone has equal voting power.”
Where one vote can make a difference, Soussi said, look no further than the special election for the District B seat that occurred this past March. Plaisance defeated Rachel Touchet Mouton by a single vote.
“We saw a special election decided by one vote,” Soussi said. “One person has that much power to decide in their own district. It is crucial to have equal city council districts. One of the great things about the Vermilion NAACP map is that it has the same configuration.”
Raven St. Julien, an Abbeville resident in attendance on Tuesday, asked why not simply accept the NAACP map.
“What would be the problem with just making it equal across the board for the districts?” St. Julien asked.
Henagan said it is not a problem in that it can’t be done, but there are other things to consider.
“There’s a list of traditional redistricting principles that need to be considered,” Henagan. “There are things to be considered other than just the number of people in each district that courts look at to determine whether a map is constitutional.
“The (city’s) proposed map follows all the traditional redistricting principles, as well as trying to get the population as equal as possible.”