Council Wants More Data Before Discussing Local Redistricting

By John Voket

Legislative Council members on January 18 got their first glimpse at a proposal to reduce the number of town voting districts from four to three, a move that would also remove all polling activities from town elementary schools. But after a brief presentation that yielded more questions than answers, the motion to approve the local Registrars of Voters’ proposal was withdrawn, and the issue was postponed to a future and as yet unspecified date.

Democratic Registrar LeReine Frampton and Republican Registrar Karin Aurelia had been working on the proposal, and apparently decided to fast-track requesting approval so that, if granted, the town could use the new plan for the upcoming Republican Presidential primary. But the only information they had to offer to the council this week were maps illustrating the current and proposed districts, and anecdotal details about what the voting officials hoped to achieve in completing a redistricting plan.

Council members were also not provided material ahead of the meeting so they appeared ill-prepared to discuss the idea. Ms Frampton said her office and the town’s mapping department did not complete translating registrars information into map graphics until just before the meeting Wednesday.

Ms Frampton told the council the idea to redistrict had been a goal of her office for “a couple of years.”

She explained that during the last Presidential election, there were concerns about creating a separation between voters and students at Middle Gate School, so that district’s polling place was temporarily relocated to Edmond Town Hall.

“That was a temporary fix, knowing that redistricting was coming in,” Ms Frampton said, adding that the remaining elementary polling place at Head O’ Meadow School also “wasn’t as easy” to get to for some voters.

The proposal would instead use the original cafeteria at the high school, which is conveniently located and can be segregated from students. Ms Frampton said that additionally, putting all three town polling places in closer proximity would make it easier for voters who may accidentally go to the wrong location, or who may mistakenly go to the middle school because that is where they vote on budget referendums but not for elections.

Evening Out Numbers

Regarding the physical redistricting from four to three districts, Ms Frampton said the registrars also considered traffic flow by reorganizing each of the voting sectors to reduce the amount of cross traffic on Wasserman Way. Ultimately, as proposed, Ms Frampton said that the plan also evens out concentrations of registered voters to “within about 100” across each district.

Mary Ann Jacob, who was acting chair in the absence of Jeff Capeci, asked about how the new districts would affect voters who were within separate state legislative districts. Currently all but a small southerly part of town is in the 116th District and is represented by Christopher Lyddy, while a few neighborhoods containing about 1,000 voters are in the 112th District, represented by DebraLee Hovey.

But a new state redistricting plan is expected to reduce the size of the 116th, and will shift some western Dodgingtown and Hattertown neighborhoods into the Second District, which would be represented by State Representative Dan Carter.

Ms Frampton said that the new optical scanning voting machines can accept different ballots at the same location, so voters in local districts with overlapping legislative jurisdictions would get different ballots even though they are voting at the same polling location. She said that if the town moves to a three-district system, it would reduce costs because fewer workers would be needed for staffing, and it would remove one town facility from having to accommodate polling activities.

Ms Jacob then asked about the upcoming GOP primary, which is scheduled on the same day as the charter-mandated town budget referendum.

“Does that mean if I don’t vote at the middle school, I’ll have to go to two places?” Ms Jacob asked.

Ms Aurelia replied that pending review by the town attorney, Newtown may be able to temporarily move the budget referendum to another day, preferably a Saturday. Ms Frampton added that the council would eventually have to consider ordering any change of referendum date.

There may not be a GOP primary in April, Ms Aurelia added.

What’s The Reason?

First Selectman Pat Llodra, who was in attendance, asked if the driving motivator was to reduce the number of polling places or minimizing the impact on voters by redrawing district lines.

“I’m driven more by the impact of change on voters, than on the cost for the number of polling places,” Mrs Llodra said.

Council member Kathryn Fetchick asked, if approved, when the new districts would take effect for local representatives and Ms Frampton said that the new districts would be in place by the next local elections in 2013. Councilman Paul Lundquist followed up asking how many representatives on the council would end up representing different voters and Ms Frampton confirmed that most of the council members would see a geographical shift in their constituencies.

Under further questioning, the council learned the only imminent factor for the council to consider was the Republican primary, otherwise there was a mid-May deadline to make the change before the pending Democratic primary.

Councilman George Ferguson said he would like to see the written argument for making the changes, as well as any data might affect the makeup between Democratic and Republican registered voters, and Independents versus unaffiliated.

“This dramatically changes the makeup of the town, and has this huge new thing called district one,” Mr Ferguson said, adding that the newly proposed districts appeared to break up close-knit neighborhoods in currently defined areas of town.

Ms Jacob said she was hearing that council representatives still have a lot of questions, and she believed the motion would not pass. She asked that the registrars return to the council after securing the additional data requested, and the original motion and second was withdrawn.

“I’d rather delay the action rather than make some knee-jerk reaction,” Ms Fetchick said.