State Lawmakers Meet In Special Session To Approve Oklahoma's Congressional District Maps

A special legislative session starts Monday at the state Capitol and will decide Oklahoma's congressional districts for the next 10 years.

This week, lawmakers will approve new maps for Oklahoma's five congressional districts. Each district includes about 800,000 people.

News 9's political analyst Scott Mitchell said every time district maps are redrawn, there are questions about which political party benefits from the new arrangement.

Right now, Republicans have the majority so it is likely they will have the final say.

"At the end of this coming week, I would imagine that the map that the Republican leadership has proposed -- there will be a lot of drama a lot of performance -- but at the end of the week, it will be the map that will be proposed," Mitchell said. 

Click here to watch the full conversation.

The map from 2011 that's in effect right now can be compared to the new map that is expected to be approved this week.

A chunk of southwest Oklahoma County will be represented by the same person who covers the panhandle.

Democratic lawmakers said this weakens the voice of the Oklahoma City metro's Hispanic and Latino community. Republican leaders said the process included input from people statewide.

The special session is expected to take five days. The redistricting will go through the traditional legislative process.

At this point, there is no further official public comment process to provide feedback now that the maps have been released.

Click here to read more about the congressional redistricting map.