At last Thursday’s Selectmen’s meeting there was only one speaker for Citizens Speak, but the topic is one that is under discussion across the Commonwealth – reprecincting.

Kris Hodlin, a Town Meeting Member from Precinct 3 and member of the Board of Library Trustess, voiced her concerns about the reprecincinting plan recently presented by the Town Clerk James Mullen and approved by the Selectmen at their previous session.

Hodlin cited several concerns. They included lack of public discussion, the difficulty in understanding what the specific precinct changes were, understanding the need of going from 11 precincts to 10, and the moving of polling places for precincts 2 and 3.

Mullen had outlined a plan in which Precinct 10 was absorbed into Precincts 3 and 8. The precinct 3 polling location was moved from Glover School to Cunningham Park and the precinct 2 polling location was moved from St. Mary’s School to the Council on Aging. He mentioned parking issues and logistics of operating a polling place while school is in session as reasons for the move.

The state requires that precincts be evenly divided with no more that 4,000 people in one precinct. According to Mr. Mullen’s plan, Milton would have 10 precincts with ~2700 residents per precinct.

The need to reprecinct is driven by the 2010 Census. Changes in population size and where they reside in a community require that towns re-examine their voting precincts (or wards, etc.) every 10 years when a census is completed. As Mullen stated in his presentation, Fuller Village came on line since last census as did 88 Wharf, and there was also a growth in the student population at Curry College. These were major drivers in Milton seeing an increase in population from ~26,000 to ~27,000.

In response to Holdin, Selectmen explained that the town was under a tight deadline to submit a plan to the state. (The deadline was 6/15). It was mentioned that the state was late in getting out the census figures to towns. An open hearing on the plan was not required as this was not a voluntary redistricting but a mandatory one as a result of population shifts. Chairman Sweeney, who voiced his confidence in Mr. Mullen saying he was possibly “the finest clerk in the Commonwealth,” said that the redistricting was a “pretty straightforward plan.” Selectman Shields added that”he put his best foot forward on this.”

Tom Hurley said that he believed the plan did “not include or exclude anybody or any group.’ He did say that it would be helpful to put the state’s redistricting information on the town web site.

Hodlin was told that there was no way to reverse the decision. However, Hurley said that the relocation of the polling places is something they could look at.

There will be a public meeting of the Election Commission this coming Tuesday. Please see link below.

Related links:

• An Introduction to Re-precincting and Redistricting in Massachusetts – from Secretary of State Galvin
• Meeting Notice: Local Election Commission to review new precincts (incl Milton)
• Google esarch result on MA reprecincting
• MA state elections division