Last November, the voters in Alabama swept in — for the first time since Reconstruction — a Republican-controlled Alabama House of Representatives and Senate.

Now, after dealing with the less-controversial Congressional redistricting, the 22-member of the Permanent Legislative Committee on Reapportionment will tackle the process of redrawing the state House and state Senate lines — a process that will no doubt be more combative.

As part of that process, the committee has been holding public meetings throughout the state, showcasing some of the proposed changes and detailing just how much districts might change to reflect changes in population documented by the 2010 Census.

One such public meeting will be held in Selma on Tuesday, Oct. 18 from noon to 2 p.m. at the St. James Hotel. The Selma meeting is just one of 21 meetings planned that began Oct. 3 in Fort Payne.

The committee’s objective is to have a proposed plan that can be presented and ultimately approved by the Alabama Legislature when the next session begins in February. There is little doubt, though, with individual House and Senate districts being affected, their efforts to redistrict the state will be met with significant political pushback.

In fact, the make-up of the committee itself was criticized earlier this year ahead of the Congressional redistricting effort. Of the 22 members, made up of state senators and state representatives, 16 are Republicans while only six are Democrats.

“I do not believe it is a fairly composed committee,” State Sen. Hank Sanders (D-Selma) said in May. “I am not sure how previous committees have been broken up, but nearly 75 percent of the committee being Republican does not sound like a well composed committee.”

Todd Stacy, spokesperson for Alabama Speaker of the House Mike Hubbard (R-Auburn), said the process of selecting the committee members was “by the book” and “represented the make up of the current Legislature.”

“It is one of the few committee responsibilities that is outlined by the state’s constitution,” Stacy said.

The meeting is open to the public and input, whether in person or in writing, is strongly encouraged.