‘Location, location, location” is the catchphrase for more than real estate agents. Where you are on a map can matter a great deal for every citizen who has any hope of being capably represented in their government.

State and local governments are in the midst of reapportionment, a process of drawing lines on that map to define political district boundaries. It’s an exercise that takes place only once a decade, after the Census updates population figures for each community.

In Hawaii, the work is being done by state and county reapportionment commissions, with final revisions to be informed by public comments.

There’s one more opportunity to weigh in for the City and County of Honolulu maps, at 5 p.m. Oct. 26 in the City Council chamber (information: www.honolulu.gov/elections/resources/reapportionment.html). According to the state Office of Elections, the state commission already has held seven meetings but will schedule more (elections.hawaii.gov/about-us/boards-and-commissions/reapportionment).

Oahu residents are already speaking up about changes being proposed to the legislative and City Council maps, and there’s reason to do so. For example, state Sen. Brian Taniguchi has alerted his constituents that proposed maps would divide Manoa Valley between two House districts. The western half of lower Manoa would be folded in with Makiki in District 24, while the rest would share District 20 with Kapahulu and Diamond Head.

“Manoa Valley should be maintained as a contiguous whole, especially in consideration of its geographic characteristics and community interests,” Taniguchi said in an emailed message to Manoa residents.

That’s not the only oddity being contemplated for the state House. District 51, if the proposed configuration is adopted, will encompass a smaller slice of Kailua, Lanikai and Waimanalo, and then snake around the coast to Portlock in East Oahu. State Rep. Lisa Marten, who now represents the district, has been alerting constituents to boundaries that append a distant community with others that are more naturally aligned.

The difficulty always lies in achieving a balance between fairness in how many people are in each district and a logical grouping of contiguous neighborhoods. That’s a challenge — even when it’s not confounded further by political gerrymandering, which, thankfully, is much less of a concern in Hawaii than in many other states.

Gerrymandering is a corruption of the process, in which lines are drawn to preserve a political goal — either to keep an incumbent in an area that supports him or her, or to ensure a political party dominates a given district. There are provisions in the state Constitution to ensure bipartisan membership and districts that, as much as possible, are “compact.”

No district can extend beyond the boundaries of a basic island unit, according to the Constitution — which makes perfect sense, but also complicates line-drawing within that unit. The state Supreme Court has favored districts that are not disproportionate — meaning, the population does not deviate from the average per district by more than 10%.

So there’s no small degree of push-and-pull that’s involved in final decisions, which is why things as wonky as maps and population counts really require voter input.

Those who hold political office are the eyes and ears of people who elect them — and their advocates as well. The public needs to know its representatives, who in turn should know their districts well.

A redistricting process that enlists the people provides the best assurance that the American brand of democracy can work, tailored to our island state.