LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Another round of redistricting talks have started at the Arkansas State Capitol, and it's back to the drawing board.
"There are no perfect maps. There will never be a 'perfect map,' because I don't know if that even exists." Secretary of State, John Thurston said.
Instead of the House and Senate drawing maps for Arkansas' national legislators, it's a group of three drawing maps for the House and Senate.
Thurston is joined by Attorney Gen. Leslie Rutledge and Gov. Asa Hutchinson as the three make up the Board of Apportionment. The board is in charge of creating these maps based off of the latest census data.
"Not everything is what every community directly wants. You've got to remember that if we make any change, that its impact has a ripple effect across the state," Hutchinson said. "We want public comment on it for the next 30 days. We'll come back and hopefully, finally, adopt them."
There are just two maps to look at here, one for the House and one for the Senate. Higher density areas, like Little Rock and Fayetteville, are more split up in an attempt to provide fairer representation to those living there.
Those on the board said that's going to happen, with so many people are living in an area.
"We added two more majority minority districts, and our first Latino majority minority district," Rutledge said. "This is exciting for the state of Arkansas."
Also at Friday's meeting were dozens of members of the public calling for maps that are fair. That was a hot button issue during October's earlier redistricting talks.
"You know, whether that's a good or bad policy, it impacts regular people on a daily basis," Gennie Diaz, who was pushing for fair maps, said. "Moving forward, this really is important, and we hope that people take note and get involved any way they can."
The public now has 30 days to weigh in on both maps – a part of the process Hutchinson said is crucial for transparency and public input going forward.
"I think they should understand that this is a public process. That we listen to them and we're very genuine about the comments that people see from this, and we invite them to make comments," he said. "We'll reconsider as we need to 30 days from now."