New district lines will affect most voter

The newly drawn U.S. congressional-district lines have forced a change that will affect more than 20,000 voters in the upcoming primary and general elections, Jessamine County Clerk Eva McDaniel said.

“Our county now has two congressional districts; that’s very unusual,” McDaniel said. “Half the county is now split.”

Gov. Steve Beshear signed House Bill 302 into law in mid-February, which keeps most of county in Democratic Rep. Ben Chandler’s 6th District but puts the western side, including Wilmore, in Republican Rep. Brett Guthrie’s 2nd District.

The redistricting will mostly affect registered voters in the county’s northwestern-area precincts where the 2nd Congressional District line zigzags south, splitting Jessamine with the 6th District to the east, McDaniel said.

The redrawn lines also add a new precinct, the 38th, to the county this year which has only one registered voter living in it.

“You can’t cross over magisterial lines, congressional lines, and, in this case, school-board lines,” McDaniel said. “It’s a big puzzle that we have to put together.”

Redistricting happens every 10 years after the state census, McDaniel said, and since the last lines were drawn up, nearly 10,000 more people are registered to vote in the county.

McDaniel said her election staff in the county clerk’s office had been working since Jan. 2 and, after many changes and suggestions, the new precinct maps were finalized March 22 by state legislators in Frankfort.
In all, there are six districts with five to nine precincts in each for the nearly 33,000 voters of Jessamine County.

“I don’t think (the change) will be a hassle for most voters, but it was a hassle for us,” deputy clerk Buddy Teater said in a joking manner. “But really I don’t think it’ll be a problem for voters; we made it convenient for all the voters to get to a booth in their precinct.”

The largest precinct is South Brook, which is based at the county fire station located at  1310 S. Main St. and is capable of handling 1,348 voters.

Two of the smallest precincts are D109, which will be open for just one voter, and D108 with only two.
Both precincts are tiny slices of land off Wilmore Road and Jessamine Station Road, but according to state law, each has to be equipped with two electronic voting booths, one of which must be accessible for handicapped voters. 

Despite the law also stating that there need to be four precinct officers stationed between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. to man the voting booths, McDaniel said her staff has found a way that will allow for the single voter in precinct D108 to sign in at another area and then return to vote in his own precinct.

In May, there may be as many as 88 electronic booths throughout the county, possibly more, McDaniel said.

The cost of manning the voting booths plus the five new ones recently approved for purchase by the Jessamine County Fiscal Court is yet to be determined she said, but the election staff is in the process of calculating it.

“Our next job is getting people in the right precinct,” McDaniel said. “The plan is to let everyone know if their precinct has been moved by sending out cards to let voters know by April 22. If we don’t send out a card, then your precinct hasn’t changed.”

The deadline to register to vote for the 2012 primary election is April 23.

The primary election will take place May 22; the general election is Nov. 6.

McDaniel said that her staff members are ready for the upcoming elections and are glad to have the redistricting part of their job completed.