text: According to The New York Times, by 2017, many of Alabama's African Americans were living in Alabama's cities such as Birmingham and Montgomery.Also, the Black Belt region across central Alabama "is home to largely poor counties that are predominantly African-American.These counties include Dallas, Lowndes, Marengo and Perry." In 1972, for the first time since 1901, the legislature completed the congressional redistricting based on the decennial census.This benefited the urban areas that had developed, as well as all in the population who had been underrepresented for more than sixty years.Other changes were made to implement representative state house and senate districts.Alabama has made some changes since the late 20th century and has used new types of voting to increase representation.In the 1980s, an omnibus redistricting case, Dillard v.Crenshaw County, challenged the at-large voting for representative seats of 180 Alabama jurisdictions, including counties and school boards.At-large voting had diluted the votes of any minority in a county, as the majority tended to take all seats.Despite African Americans making up a significant minority in the state, they had been unable to elect any representatives in most of the at-large jurisdictions.As part of settlement of this case, five Alabama cities and counties, including Chilton County, adopted a system of cumulative voting for election of representatives in multi-seat jurisdictions.This has resulted in more proportional representation for voters.In another form of proportional representation, 23 jurisdictions use limited voting, as in Conecuh County.In 1982, limited voting was first tested in Conecuh County.Together use of these systems has increased the number of African Americans and women being elected to local offices, resulting in governments that are more representative of their citizens.