170 Lake County precincts will be consolidated
Contributed By:The 411 News
Secretary of State Lawson delivers consolidation plan
Indpls. — A law passed by the Indiana General Assembly earlier this year required the Indiana Election Commission to consolidate Lake County precincts. If the Commission was unable to complete the work by July 1, the responsibility was passed to Indiana Secretary of State Connie Lawson.
The Indiana Election Commission did not adopt a plan by the July 1 deadline, despite multiple meetings during which commission members deadlocked on party lines. Under Public Law 210-2018, Secretary Lawson was required to issue an order to consolidate precincts not later than August 1, 2018.
Over the past month, Secretary Lawson, with input from Lake County officials and residents, labored to construct a workable plan, and today, the office delivered the finalized consolidation plan to the Lake County Board of Election and Registration. The plan takes into account population shifts, population distribution, existing precinct structure, public transit options, and distance from a precinct’s mean center population point.
“My office has worked diligently to craft a reasonable plan that is fair to the citizens of Lake County,” said Secretary Lawson. “Under this plan, county residents will realize roughly $700,000 in savings over the next four years, yet will be minimally impacted by a shift in some polling locations. I want to thank all those who provided input on this plan.”
Under the new plan, 170 precincts will be consolidated. Those precincts had less than 600 voters in the November 2017 election.
There will be a total of 114 changes to polling locations, and of those, 70 locations will move less than one mile from their old location. The average distance from any prior polling location to the new polling location, across the entire county, is 1.002 miles, and 119 of the new polling locations fall within 0.25 miles of an existing public transit corridor. There will be no changes to existing representation at the city, town, township, county, state, or federal level.
The new precincts take effect January 1, 2019. A copy of the Lake County Plan is available online at sos.in.gov.
Story Posted:08/02/2018
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