The Department of Justice is asking for more information from the City of Brookhaven, Mississippi and delaying the approaching local elections to be held on the new wards lines.  DOJ is not providing any indication on what the problem might be with the new ward lines.  According to the story, the only expressed concern to the city was not with the actual lines but the process by which the lines were drawn. 

There didn’t seem to be any vocal opposition to the new lines which passed with almost unanimous agreement on the lines, a final 6-1 vote. Yet this is politics and redistricting where elbows are thrown.  Now the Holder DOJ has now inserted a “be kind and considerate” clause into the retrogression analysis of the Voting Rights Act where any politician or activist can call up DOJ and complain of their poor treatment (“No one listened to my perfect idea”) in an effort to stop the election just as candidates are qualifying to run for office. 

If the Justice Department denies preclearance to the city’s ward map, further confusion could arise. The city would have to make revisions of some kind to the proposed redistricting plan.

Fernald said he doesn’t know how the election would be handled in such an event.  “We’ve never faced this before,” Fernald said.  Questions and requests for additional documents
by the Justice Department have focused on the process by which the city
reached its proposed ward map.  “The questions seems to be more about the
process,” Fernald said. “They’ve never said anything about the ultimate
plan to me. (They’ve) been more concerned about how we got where we
got.”

Fernald said he’s sent the Justice Department
copies of election returns going back several years, copies of minutes
of board meetings and articles from The Daily Leader about work sessions
and meetings where redistricting was discussed.  Fernald said the last packet of documents he sent was submitted about a week before Christmas.

Since then, there’s been only silence.