DOTC recaps commissioners’ meeting

Says Dan: Went to share my two cents at the commissioner’s meeting this afternoon about reducing the number of precincts in KC.

There was over an hour of testimony, which was a fair number of people because they limited each person to 3 minutes. And I found myself on the same side as Spencer on this one (or he was on mine) expressing concerns about how having that many precincts will make for overcrowding on a big election day. Spencer also provided some relevant and interesting research on the correlation between distance traveled by voters and likelihood they will (or won’t) end up voting.

Quite a bit of the testimony had to do with concerns about reducing the number of precinct committee people which therefore means each elected precinct committee person has to represent more people.

Anyone else want to weigh in?

Several expressed concern that overly large precincts mean too many people to try and contact.

My point included the fact that many states have limits on the size of precincts with the most common upper limit being between 1,000 to 1,200 with the maximum being 1,800. I pointed out that over a quarter of the new precincts will be over 1,800 and more than half of those are in the “mega” range meaning over 2,000.

After hearing everyone, the commissioners did postpone their decision for two weeks for more input. Some suggested just adding additional precincts to the 44 suggested polling sites without actually adding more polling places. This would still contribute to the overcrowding danger in my book.

I also pointed out that in past redistricting efforts, just like at the state level, we have set up committees made up of both parties and had multiple meetings, input from the public, and then public presentations before the maps were finalized. This did not happen so far and I asked the BOCC to open up the process.

Do you agree with my “reporting” Spencer?