By MELISSA PEACOCK

RESERVE – A highly anticipated letter from the U.S. Department of Justice recently reached the eager hands of St. John the Baptist Parish School Board members.

But board members received no satisfaction from the message. The future of the 11-member board remained uncertain as members continue to wait for approval of parish redistricting plans.

The letter, a response to redistricting plans submitted in July, requested more information for both the 1995 and 2002 St. John Parish redistricting plans, information Board President Gerald Keller said may not even be available.

“They are even asking for information that is before 1992,” Keller said. “I don’t know that stuff and I don’t even think we can get that from the Registrar of Voters. I don’t think they were computerized in 1990.”

The letter asks for specific information about voter composition from the mid-80s to the present. Information requested includes election returns by voting precinct for all elections with black candidates (starting in 1990), the number of black registered voters, by district (for 1985, 1995 and 2002), alternative redistricting plans and a detailed description of all efforts to consult minority voters about the 2002 plan.

“They are trying to get information from 10 or 12 years ago to see if African-Americans are losing ground,” Keller said. “I do not know how many of the people that voted were white or black in the precinct. They ask your name when you vote, not whether you are white or black.”

Keller predicted it would take a month or longer for the board to collect all the information requested – that is, if the board can find the information at all.

Attorneys at the Justice Department then have 60 more days (from the time they receive the information) to review, accept, or reject the redistricting plans or to ask the board for more information. Every time questions are raised, the Justice Department gets an additional 60 days to review answers. This could mean another election delay.

“It would take a while just to compile that kind of information,” Betty Madere, St. John the Baptist Parish Registrar of Voters, said. “There have been a number of elections since 1985.”

School Board officials will have to contact the Clerk of Court or Secretary of State for much of the voter information – but even that information may not be accurate, Madere warned.

“Any of the results given are not really accurate,” Madere said. “Of our registered voters there are 773 that marked other (for race information).”

In July, the Justice Department told the board it would not approve a new redistricting plan until an old plan was reviewed. The plan in question was approved by a federal judge in 1995, but never received preclearance from the department.

School Board member Charles Watkins said the Justice Department is also concerned about the decline in the number of black voters in his district.

In the 2002 redistricting plan, the number of black voters in District 6 dropped about 10 percent. The federal government is trying to ensure that the change “will not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a language minority group.”

Without the approval of at least one of the plans, the School Board can not proceed with qualifying and elections.

“I think we are dead-ducks as far as any October or November election is concerned,” Keller said. “Right now we are shooting for April.”