The West Virginia Legislature has been in a special session in recent days, with the primary goal of completing the redistricting of our Congressional, state Senate and state House districts. It’s something our state lawmakers are tasked with following each national Census, as population numbers are tabulated and representation is adjusted for each state in the U.S. House of Representatives, as well as at the level of state government.

I’m not going to get started on whether I feel state lawmakers should be tasked with deciding the layouts of their own districts (I don’t). This is, though, the process currently being used as so it must be done.

Our reporter in Charleston, Steven Allen Adams, has been among those leading the way with news coverage of the redistricting debates. He’s been at the Capitol every day of the session and has produced numerous articles on the subject.

I encourage our readers to go back and check them out if they haven’t read them. What is happening in Charleston right now will have an impact on much of what we do in the future while choosing some of our elected representatives.

The Congressional map is fairly straight-forward, although there still was some debate. A recognized line of delineation has been drawn, which, when the bill is signed, will officially take West Virginia down to having only two members of the U.S. House of Representatives following next year’s election. All three of our current representatives have announced their intention to seek re-election, but David McKinley, who currently represents the 1st District including the Upper Ohio Valley, will have to face off against Alex Mooney who currently represents our state’s 2nd District, for the Republican nomination. That district will include both the Northern and Eastern panhandles, as well as a good portion of northern and central West Virginia. Also, unless something changes, it will now be the 2nd District.

Carol Miller, who represents the 3rd District, would seek election to the southern district, which would now be the 1st District, without having to face any of the other incumbents.

In the state Senate, our Brooke and Hancock counties would remain firmly in the 1st District, which also includes all of Ohio County and will be expanded to feature up to half of Marshall County.

The tricky part seems to be in the House of Delegates. Several years ago, the Legislature decided to change its makeup to 100 districts, each represented by one member. I don’t want to cast aspersions with the maps I’ve seen, but there are certainly more than a few proposed districts with a lizard-like shape to them.

While not as confusing as some portions of the state, our area has its own interesting proposed lines.

In most of the maps I’ve seen, the 1st state House district would feature most of Hancock County, an eastern portion of the city of Weirton, and then run down along the border with Pennsylvania into the Colliers area and a little farther south into Brooke County.

The 2nd District would include the greater portion of Weirton, running down until just north of Follansbee and wrapping around into Hooverson Heights and south close to Wellsburg. The 3rd District would then include Follansbee, Wellsburg and the remainder of Brooke County, as well as a portion of northern Ohio County.

Those are all a little more clear cut, of course, than some areas, but we will still end up with some communities split between districts, and even, in Weirton’s case, instances of neighbors in different districts.

We’re all going to have a lot of studying to do before election filings begin in a few months.

(Howell, a resident of Colliers, is managing editor of The Weirton Daily Times, and can be contacted at chowell@weirtondailytimes.com or followed on Twitter @CHowellWDT)