Select panels in the Senate and House of Delegates are currently developing plans that will determine where district lines are drawn for the purpose of elections that will decide state and federal representation in West Virginia for the next 10 years.

While calling it a tricky process may be not be the proper adjective, the politicking that surrounds redistricting may be of the worst kind.

Unfortunately, the “everybody-for-him-or-herself” mentality is all too prevalent, no matter what the vast majority of politicians would like you to believe.

Here in southern West Virginia, we find ourselves in a very unenviable position since nearly every single county in our region saw a significant drop in population per the official 2010 census figures, except Greenbrier County, which gained 1,027 residents, and Raleigh County, which lost just 361 since the year 2000.

Meanwhile, other areas of the state saw some substantial jumps in population so the shifting of district lines is now under way.

Our current legislative delegation needs to do everything possible to keep our districts intact.

In Raleigh County, the census count indicates that we have enough citizens to have 4.5 members in the House. At the present time, in the 27th District, there are four Raleigh County resident representatives and one Summers County resident delegate.

This mix should stay the same since Raleigh’s population didn’t drop and to ensure that Summers County, even though it lost 7.1 percent of its residents, is represented.

While state law allows for contiguous electoral districts that don’t necessarily guarantee that every county has at least one resident representing them, it’s only fair that those who are close to the ideal of 18,000, which is figured on 100 seats in the House divided into the state’s total population of approximately 1.8 million, should be represented.

The only current county that doesn’t fall into that category with representation is Mason, with a population of more than 22,000. House Speaker Rick Thompson has said that will be rectified, and it needs to be.

But how legislators are charged with the task of determining where districts are designated, and the work behind making these other critical decisions, is leaving areas like ours with some uneasy feelings.

All of our delegates — Ricky Moye, D-Raleigh, Virginia Mahan, D-Summers, John O’Neal, D-Raleigh, Rick Snuffer, R-Raleigh, and Linda Sumner, R-Raleigh — need to agree that single-member districts are not currently in the best interest of Raleigh County, or southern West Virginia.