Redistricting lines may lead to confusion at polls, says clerkDate: 3/2/2022 WESTFIELD — Last year’s atypical legislative redistricting process, where district lines were drawn before cities and towns had a chance to draw their precinct maps, could lead to confusion on Election Day, the Westfield city clerk said last week.
Town clerks in Agawam and West Springfield, on the other hand, are not expecting any problems as their re-precincting process wraps up.
Both sets of maps are updated every 10 years to account for population shifts revealed in the U.S. Census. Usually, the state Legislature lets municipalities determine their precincts, then builds state legislative districts as groupings of precincts. This cycle, because census data was delayed, the state used census tracts as its building blocks in cases where it had to split a community into more than one district.
That’s what happened in Agawam and Westfield, both of which will see a portion of their territory removed from their current representative districts and attached to a district centered on West Springfield. If the district lines don’t match up with the new precinct lines, voters and poll workers will have to contend with the unprecedented phenomenon of different ballots for different addresses within the same precinct.
Karen Fanion, city clerk in Westfield, believes that this will be confusing, but manageable.
“As we work through the process and the logistics, it may add a couple of my workers to Ward 6, but nothing significant,” said Fanion.
She said the City Council approved new precinct maps in October. The maps have to be drawn to equalize the population across all 12 precincts, she said. The state suggests proposed maps, which cities and towns can choose to accept.
“It is up to each individual city or town to accept the maps, but if a city or town chooses to change the proposed lines, all rules and regulations must be followed in keeping within the target populations as well as using acceptable geographical features to divide a precinct, such as a major road, local road, railroads, streams, rivers or other municipal features,” Fanion said.
“There are 992 addresses that have a change in their ward/precinct and 17,878 addresses that will see no change,” said Fanion. “I am currently working with the state to confirm that all the geocoding of all the streets in Westfield has been done correctly within the state’s voter registration database.”
Once this is confirmed, anyone with a precinct chance will be notified directly prior to the 2022 elections.
Westfield’s city population declined between the 2010 and 2020 censuses, from 41,094 to 40,834. The target population for each precinct is now 3,403; Fanion said she is allowed to deviate up to 5 percent from that target, so each precinct will have a population between 3,233 and 3,573.
At this time, Fanion said no changes are being considered to polling places.
Agawam
Vince Gioscia, town clerk of Agawam, said his City Council also approved the state’s recommended precinct map in October, which incorporates “minor changes to the precinct lines.” Agawam’s population increased very little, from 28,438 in 2010 to 28,692 in 2020.
“We didn’t gain any precincts,” said Gioscia.
He noted that one of the new precincts will shift to the district currently represented by Michael Finn, D-West Springfield, while the rest of the town remains in the district currently represented by Nicholas Boldyga, R-Southwick.
As they haven’t lost or gained any precincts, Gioscia said it’s “unnecessary” to add or make changes to their current polling places. Agawam has seven polling places for its eight precincts.
West Springfield
Otto Frizzell, town clerk of West Springfield, said the redistricting process has made reprecincting in 2022 “much slower” than it was 10 years ago.
“A major piece is the delay in this process,” he added.
Frizzell said the town is currently reviewing its proposed precinct map.
“We have the data set and we’re working with the GIS Department,” he said. “We expect to have [the map] done within 30 days,” said Frizzell. “Our precinct boundaries in West Springfield have minimal change. The major change is redistricting.”
West Springfield is changing state Senate districts, moving from the district currently represented by Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, and into the district currently represented by Sen. John Velis, D-Westfield. It will keep the same state representative district, however, and unlike Agawam and West Springfield, will not be split.
“The state offers some good resources to draw precinct lines,” said Frizzell. He added that they try to change these lines as little as possible. West Springfield did not change its population much, increasing from 28,391 to 28,835.
“We’re fortunate in West Springfield, being pretty much fully developed,” and the increases in population are “not surprising,” stated Frizzell.
He said the minimal changes in precinct lines won’t require any changes in polling places, though he does hope to move some polls to Coburn School when the new building is complete.
Currently, six precincts vote in the high school, using the large gymnasium, and two are located at the Senior Center. Frizzell said once the new Coburn opens, his goal is to have four precincts there and four at the high school. The change in polling places would have to be approved by the Town Council and the state.
Frizzell said once the reprecincting process is complete, he will send notifications to voters of what precinct they are in and where they will vote in the fall.
In the meantime, anyone with questions is asked to call the town clerk’s office at 263-3009.
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