AUGUSTA – Long after most other states have finished their work, Democrats and Republicans are just gearing up for their decennial war over how to redraw Maine’s political boundaries.

Remapping is required every 10 years to reflect population changes measured in the most recent federal census.

Only Montana and Maine wait this long.

A tight schedule and slow start in Augusta this year could make bipartisan bargaining more difficult, as a recommendation to the Legislature is due by early April.

But the laborious time once needed to lay out redistricting scenarios may no longer be necessary.

What was formerly a primitive map-drawing contest is now an electronically aided tussle. Computers, not crayons, are the weapons in the duel.

“The technology is a heck of a lot better,” says Rep. Matthew Dunlap, a Democrat from Old Town who has been appointed to what will become a 15-member apportionment commission.

“We don’t have to have a lot of people with adding machines, that type of thing,” Dunlap said.

Thus far, most of the state’s advisory redistricting panel has been named. It includes:

. Three House Democrats: Reps. Dunlap, David Lemoine of Old Orchard Beach, and Rosita Gagne-Friel of Buckfield;

. Three House Republicans: Reps. Roderick Carr of Lincoln, Jonathan Courtney of Sanford and Joshua Tardy of Newport;

. Two Senate Democrats: Sens. Neria Douglass of Auburn and Kenneth Gagnon of Waterville;

. Two Senate Republicans: Sens. Paul Davis of Sangerville and Richard Nass of Acton;

. Democratic Party designee Molly Pitcher of Brunswick;

. Republican Party nominee Ann Robinson of Portland.

Still to be appointed are a public member picked by Democrats and another public member picked by Republicans.

A third public member chosen by the other two public members is likely to serve as the commission’s permanent chairman.

Data from the 2000 Census released in March 2001 showed that communities across southern Maine grew during the 1990s while population in the north continued to dwindle.

Maine’s overall population, according to those figures, grew by 3.8 percent to 1,274,923 people between 1990 and 2000.

Only four states had lower growth rates over the decade, and only Connecticut had a more sluggish rate in New England.

The six fastest-growing counties in the state followed U.S. Route 1 from the New Hampshire border at York County to Hancock County.

Cumberland County grew 9.2 percent to 265,612. York County had the biggest percentage gain of 13.5 percent.

In contrast, Aroostook County lost 15 percent of its population, most going with the closing of Loring Air Force Base in 1994. Overall, the county dropped to 73,938 residents.

Maine’s three largest cities – Portland, Lewiston and Bangor – lost population.

New political maps will have to take into account population changes in the 1st Congressional District – which comprises York, Cumberland, Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and part of Kennebec County – and in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes Aroostook, Washington, Hancock, Penobscot, Piscataquis, Somerset, Waldo, Franklin, Oxford, Androscoggin and part of Kennebec.

Mappers also will be eyeing 151 state House districts and 35 Senate districts.

“I don’t see wholesale changes,” says the executive director of the Maine Republican Party, Dwayne Bickford. “Probably [just] where there are two incumbents lined up next to each other.”

The reapportionment commission is due to submit a plan for consideration by the Legislature by April 3. Enactment of a plan by the Legislature requires two-thirds majorities.

If lawmakers fail to approve a plan, the task is given to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, as happened 10 years ago.

Some observers view that as the most likely outcome, but others recall that 20 years ago, the House and Senate passed a redistricting package themselves.

At the time, a key Democrat on the redistricting panel, Edward Kelleher, who now serves as a legislative liaison for the court system, credited a mutual openness to bipartisan negotiation.

“After the Democrats got over the idea that ‘the Republicans are going to do us in,’ and after the Republicans got over the idea that ‘the Democrats are going to do us in,’ we put our shoulder to the wheel,” Kelleher said. “The suspicions evaporated after the second meeting and respect began to build.”

In 1983, the last year in which the Legislature approved the redistricting package, Democrats held majorities of 23-10 in the Senate and 93-58 in the House.

Democrats again control both chambers, but by lesser margins of 18-17 in the Senate and 80-67, with one Green Independent and three unenrolled, in the House.

Last month, new government estimates suggested that more than 16,000 Mainers were among 3.2 million people overlooked across the nation in the 2000 Census.

A revision including those estimates would put Maine’s population for 2000 at 1,291,649.