The Baltimore County Council on Monday night voted 5 to 2 to approve a redistricting map that gives Maryland’s third-largest county more opportunity to represent its diverse population, with two Black-majority districts and one majority-minority district hugging the county’s west side.

The three new majority-minority districts replace the lone Black-majority district that has been in place for 20 years. One new district includes a Black voting population of 57%, and the other of 56%. The third, known as a BIPOC district, includes 44% Black voters but enough Latino and Asian voters to make it a majority-minority district.

It also makes some requested tweaks, including reuniting the Reisterstown community around Main Street instead of splitting it up and moving some precincts around in the north and western parts of the district. That version is not yet available as one entire map because it was just voted on Monday.

The councilmen who voted for the map believe it satisfies the Voting Rights Act and will protect the county from a possible challenge from civil rights groups, who filed a lawsuit several years ago during a similar redistricting effort.

That lawsuit cost the county $1 million — something all of the councilmen have said they’d like to avoid. The county’s population is about a third Black, and it’s on track to become a majority-minority county in a few years due to growing Latino, Asian, and Arab American populations.

The vote comes after months of contentious public hearings, thousands of phone calls and emails to councilmen, and friction among the council’s Democrats.

Councilmen Pat Young and Julian Jones rejected the map and, along with members of the public, asked for more time to review the options before Oct. 1. That’s the deadline for the council to get the map to elections officials to prepare for candidates who want to file and run in new districts.

“It doesn’t cost us anything to move forward and delay the vote for at least a week, or, maybe two, so that everybody has an opportunity to see all of the amendments,” Jones said.

Added Young, a fellow Democrat: “I don’t think we’ve gone far enough in recognizing what our county looks like now.”

Both men voted against the final redistricting plan.

But Councilmen Izzy Patoka and Mike Ertel maintained the body had plenty of time to consider the matter, with Ertel, who is chair, noting that members had heard repeatedly from many of the same people.

The vote also comes after a protest by east side activists, who said their diversifying population calls for a majority-minority district to represent communities in Dundalk, Essex, Rosedale, and parts of Middle River.

The final map is something of a compromise between the council’s original iteration, which staff and councilmen drew in July 2024, and the work of a redistricting commission, which voted on its map after 15 weeks of public hearings and meetings.

The July 2024 map had only two majority-minority districts on the west side; the redistricting commission‘s map had those two, plus majority-minority districts that included Black, Asian, Latino and Arab American voters on each side of the county. It is part of a yearslong effort to expand the council from seven districts to nine, the first expansion since the council was formed in 1956.

While residents overwhelmingly voted for the expansion last November, many criticized the county for a lack of transparency. Del. N. Scott Phillips, a west side resident, said he was heartened to hear Ertel say the lawmakers’ two priorities were to abide by the Voting Rights Act and keep communities together. But then, he said, Ertel’s amended map sliced the west side three ways, and left the east side alone.

“Why is community cohesion the guiding principle in the east, while in the west we prioritize division and dilution of the African American vote?” Phillips asked. “Baltimore County cannot apply one standard for some communities and another for others.”

A map with a majority-minority district on the east side was always going to be a hard sell for this council, which includes four Democrats and three Republicans. In July 2024, the council needed five votes to advance a measure to expand from seven to nine. Ertel and Patoka, both Democrats, were always on board with expansion. But Jones and Young were lukewarm at first, then only wanted to expand if it yielded four more districts.

Patoka and Ertel relied on their three Republican colleagues to get the expansion provision on last November’s ballot and change the charter. Republican support came with a price: a map that gave Democrats a 5-4 advantage instead of a 6-3 one.

That didn’t sit well with some Democratic constituents.

The three Republicans immediately said they would not support the commission’s redistricting map. With the map requiring five votes — including some Republican support — the council got back to work. In particular, Ertel, Patoka and Republican David Marks worked on the map in their Towson offices.

The redistricting battle has been bruising, and many council members have other priorities before the term ends. Only Ertel has said he is running for reelection. Marks and fellow Republican Todd Crandell have not announced plans; and Wade Kach is retiring. On the Democratic side, Young, Jones and Patoka are all running for county executive.

Ertel remarked that the 14-monthlong process didn’t make anyone happy, but the gallery erupted in cheers after the vote. Several residents walked out smiling, squeezing each other’s hands, happy that their neighborhoods were kept together.