Sept. 20. By Dave Vieser. A joint committee from the NC House of Representatives and Senate will conduct two hearings on redistricting this week in the Mecklenburg/Iredell County area:

—3 pm Wednesday at Central Piedmont Community Colleges Uptown Charlotte

—3 pm Thursday at the Iredell County Campus of Mitchell Community College

You can also make comments online.

The committee hopes to finish redistricting and approve the new electoral maps by late November.

Locally, incumbent Democrat Natasha Marcus (NC Senate District 41) may face a more difficult campaign if the district is changed to include more of Iredell County.

NATASHA MARCUS

Both the House and Senate have Republican majorities. GOP political consultant Andy Yates said that no decisions have been made yet.

“They are doing the hearings first, before any changes are proposed,” Yates said.

The criteria for composing the new maps includes equal population in each district, trying not to split towns, cities and counties, keeping them compact and leaving incumbents in their districts.

The criteria does not include race or partisan data.

The NAACP among others, would like to see race included as part of the process for the new districts.

Every 10 years, after the census, states use the new population data to draw new maps for political districts. A very tight deadline exists for the new district maps this year mostly due to the late arrival of census data.