A process that began late last year finally came to a close Tuesday evening, when the Selma City Council narrowly approved the new voting wards within the city limits. The approval came “at the very last moment possible,” city attorney Jimmy Nunn said following the meeting.

“This is always a tough process and it has to be a thorough process,” Nunn said moments after the council’s 5-4 vote. “There is a tremendous amount of work left in order to get everything together, everything published and sent to the Justice Department.”

The redistricting is a measure that is required by law to be done every 10 years to reflect population changes and shifts within the city limits. The figures used to redraw the lines were those taken from the 2010 Census.

In dividing up the city’s total population, which according to the Census was 20,756, each ward — ideally — would have a population of 2,595 people. But, the law also gives the city some leeway, giving a margin of plus-or-minus 5 percent, in dividing up population.

While all wards some changes, wards 1, 7 and 8 required the smallest changes. The other five wards went through sizeable to significant shifts in population.

One example — and the largest example — was ward 4, represented by Angela Benjamin, which had to “lose” nearly 800 residents in order to be in compliance. Ward 6, represented by Rev. B.L. Tucker, had to “gain” more than 600, while ward 5 councilmember Sam Randolph had to welcome an additional 300 or so into his ward. Also, ward 2, represented by Susan Keith, had to “lose” more than 300 residents.

“It just was a tough decision we all had to make. We had to be in compliance with the letter of the law,” Randolph, who voted for the proposed map, said. “Not everyone — obviously — is satisfied with the decision that we made, but I think this is the best possible decision we could have come up with.”

Those voting for the map were Benjamin, Randolph, ward 1 councilmember Tommy Atchison, ward 7 councilmember Bennie Ruth Crenshaw and ward 8 councilmember Corey Bowie.

Those voting against the measure were Tucker, Keith, ward 3 councilmember Greg Bjelke and council president Cecil Williamson.

During the meeting, Keith did commend the hard work put forth by Nunn and his office, as well as the working relationship she and Crenshaw displayed in working through changes the two neighboring wards had to go through.

“It’s challenging to bring everyone together,” Nunn said. “It’s challenging to bring nine council members and everyone being in agreement and I think that was done here.”

Nunn must complete the submission to Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard and send it to the Justice Department before May 28.