Hillsborough County is redrawing election maps, with changes set to go in effect by April. But first, officials want feedback on four redistricting proposals meant to address the addition of 20,000 residents in the past five years. 

Redistricting is the routine process of redrawing boundaries of a district and moving precincts to reflect population changes. A district is a defined area that determines which voters elect which representatives. A precinct is a subdivision within a district, often assigned a unique number and polling place to gather and manage voters. 

“Most people, even people that moved here and find the area attractive, do not realize how fast-growing we are,” Yassert Gonzalez—manager of economics, demographics and research at Plan Hillsborough—told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “Twenty-thousand people in five years is a ton of people.”

Redistricting happens every four years and is overseen by the Hillsborough County Planning Commission—and there’s a lot to discuss.

District 5, for instance, used to be a majority Black district. At one point, Gonzalez told CL, African-Americans made up 80% of that district’s registered voters. Today, they only represent 47%.

Tampa community leaders like NAACP Hillsborough Branch President Yvette Lewis are worried about voting power and representation. Last month she told Bay News 9, “Growth is good, but it can be harmful to the people who already live there.”

Gonzalez told CL that the changes they propose are always very limited, and that while planners are sensitive to the history of a district, they make their recommendations based mainly on population.

Analysis by the Tampa Monitor updated on Feb. 16 shows that there are 14,313 registered voters in the nine precincts that could be affected by proposed changes. The most that would be affected by one of the alternatives is 6,048 (alternative one, detailed below along with three other options).

Data Sources & Methodology

• Voter Registration: Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections (January Precinct Summary without Precinct Splits (Hillsborough County SOE, Feb 2026))
• 2023 Turnout: March 7, 2023 City of Tampa Municipal Election
• Demographics: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2022 5-Year Estimates
• Precinct Demographics: Area-weighted spatial interpolation from census tract data

Note: Tampa municipal elections are officially non-partisan. Party registration provides context but does not determine ballot access.

According to census data from 2022, six of the nine districts have a majority White registered voters. Just one, Precinct 207, is majority Black. Two precincts, 342 and 345, are majority Hispanic. 

By shifting precincts like the majority-Black Precinct 207 from District 5 to District 6, the redistricting alternatives raise concerns about the region’s future of electoral representation and politics.

Gonzalez emphasized that with 95% of the city’s population untouched, redistricting likely won’t make things worse when implemented.

He added that with Tampa’s growth, keeping the districts equal is essential—and routine. 

“That’s something that’s incumbent upon us, being blessed by all this growth: to monitor things, make sure that things don’t get out of whack,” Gonzalez said. “It’s very easy to lose that ‘one person, one vote’ principle when you have one district that’s really grabbing everything.”

Gonzalez is happy that 80 people have taken the commission’s redistricting alternative survey so far; he looks forward to further engagement from Tampa residents as the time to redistrict closes in. Residents can also access the survey in Spanish via Survey Monkey.

The commission’s next virtual community meeting date to discuss alternatives is Monday, Feb. 23 from noon-2 p.m. An in-person public hearing on the topic is set for Monday, March 9 at 7:30 p.m. at the Planning Commission Board Room, located inside the Frederick B. Karl County Center at 601 E Kennedy Blvd. in downtown Tampa.

This story first appeared at Creative Loafing, which is part of the Tampa Bay Journalism Project (TBJP), a nascent Creative Loafing Tampa Bay effort supported by grants and a coalition of donors who make specific contributions via the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation. If you are a non-paywalled Bay area publication interested in TBJP, please email rroa@ctampa.com.