Councilwoman Mary Rakestraw — who submitted the map the council members approved Tuesday night — announced she didn’t create the map at all: It mysteriously showed up on her doorstep.

What does that even mean?

Seriously, what is she talking about?

Was an envelope literally left at her door, with no return address? And she opened it, and thought, "Huh, a redistricting map, I'll mark it up with Trudy and Bill and put it up for a vote?"

This is the standard the Greensboro City Council has set for itself?

And this isn't much better:

Matheny is distancing himself from the situation. He was out of town on business Tuesday and didn’t vote. On Wednesday, he would not say how he would have voted.

The guy who was supposed to be in charge of the process won't even say how he would have voted?

Comments

[Ryan]

I'm thinking Bill Burkley played a lot of "ring the doorbell and run" when he was a kid.

No matter who created the map (And, the comment doesn't mean Bill isn't a smart guy - not by a long shot)... from the outside looking in, the process looks like a joke.

Things are happening all around NC, and I hate to see this kind of stuff going on in Greensboro. There are much better stories to be told...

Ryan

[Andrew]

Glad to hear this will be challenged before the DOJ. FWIW, I wrote an email this morning asking the NC AG to take a look at how exactly all this transpired.

[Margaret Banks]

Potential T-shirt: I Made Mary's Map

[Account Deleted]

The process does seem a bit off, but I have yet to hear anyone discuss the merits of the changes? I take it there are two changes in controversy? Does anyone know if population growth supports the changes? I've not seen any real discussion of the numbers or the total voters per district. Just a lot of wailing and gnashing of teeth it seems.

What are the political and electoral implications?

[Account Deleted]

Oh wait, I should have known the best reporter in town had all that in print already.

[Joe Killian]

Right now we're at just over 9 percent variance, below the 10 percent threshold from DOJ.

Not legally required.

Nancy Vaughan is the only one who has addressed the "why?" with me, and we'll get that in tomorrow. She says it's not necessary now, but if they do another annexation it likely will be and changing the map this much guards against that.

Of course, any number of changes would also get the job done. The council's appointed redistricting liaison did not recommend any course of action after meeting with community groups and Rakestraw submitted a plan which is advantageous to her in all the ways outlined, which was accepted without comment from those who voted for it.

[dtownresident]

This pretty much sums up all that is wrong with the political process.

[David Craft]

Give Zach a break. He wasn't at the meeting and hasn't seen the map. How could he know if he would vote for it or not. He is on Spring Break with his family......

[Joe Killian]

Jeff:

You won't get any argument from me that Jordan's a hell of a reporter.

But you may have missed the story in the N&R's edition Tuesday print edition as well, with map links on the online version:

http://www.news-record.com/content/2011/04/19/article/changes_proposed_in_voting_districts

[Account Deleted]

Thanks Joe. It is hard to keep up these days.

[Ron]

Well Zack does need to man up and take some responsibility. "I don't want to be a part of this political mess" He was already a part of it when he took on the role as point person for the redistricting. Because of that, the people deserve to hear what he has to say. be a leader.

[Dave Ribar]

Hi. A "No MaryMandering" group has been set up on Facebook.

[Roch101]

David Craft:

"Give Zach a break. He wasn't at the meeting and hasn't seen the map. How could he know if he would vote for it or not."

Zack Matheny:

“Dianne and Mary still submitted maps and went after each other’s districts,” Matheny said.

It doesn't sound like Zack was ignorant of the contents of the maps.

[Joe Killian]

Even Zack's not arguing that he didn't know what was going on.