Bruce Shoemaker wrote, "It being election day and all, and as I
prepare to head off to vote, some questions are occurring to me about the
situation my area of the city seems to be in regarding our city council
representation. I am in the Holland neighborhood which has been in Ward 3.
According to the redistricting plan, all of Holland is to become part of
Ward 1. However, the citizen lawsuit regarding the redistricting (Full
Disclosure: I am one of the plaintiffs) is not scheduled to go to trial
until sometime in 2004."
[Bruce S.] "Question 1: Has an official decision been made by the
city of whether the new ward boundaries are now in effect or whether the old
ones are in effect until the lawsuit is resolved? (While this doesn't
impact any of the races being decided today, it should determine which
council member now represents me).
"Question 2: If the trial now getting underway of Ward 3 CM Biernat
results in him leaving office, and a special election is held sometime in
the near future, will the old Ward 3 or proposed new Ward 3 boundaries be
used?"
[BRM] Regardless of the redistricting litigation, the "old" wards
stay in place until the next general election, and any special election
filling a Council vacancy occurs in the "old" ward that elected the Member
who vacated. Redistricting cannot take effect piecemeal, with some Members
elected from the "old" wards from the last general election, while others
are elected from the redistricted wards in special elections. Such a
piecemeal approach would violate equal protection, since some voters (those
who lived in an "old" ward whose Council Member is still serving, and were
redistricted into a new ward that is electing a new Member filling a
vacancy) would have gotten to vote for two Council Members, while others
(those who lived in the vacating Member's ward, but were redistricted into a
different ward whose Member is still serving) would never have had the
chance of voting for any.
As a practical matter, any Council Member who is thinking about
another term ought to be paying attention to voters in his or her new ward
as well as in the old one, even if he or she does not technically represent
those voters yet.
[Bruce S.] "Question 3: If the new Ward 3 boundaries are used for a
special election, what then happens if the lawsuit prevails and Ward 3 must
be
re-redistricted?"
[BRM] See answer to Question 2. Any special election filling a
Council vacancy occurs in the "old" ward that elected the Member who
vacated.
[Bruce S.] "Question 4: If the old Ward 3 boundaries are used, and
the lawsuit does not result in the re-redistricting of Ward 3, what then
happens?"
[BRM] See answer to Question 2. Any special election filling a
Council vacancy occurs in the "old" ward that elected the Member who
vacated. The next general election, scheduled for November 2005, occurs
under the redistricting plan--either the one that the Council adopted
earlier this year, or one drawn by the court as a result of the litigation.
[Bruce S.] "Question 5: Is the city prepared to conduct a special
election based on the old Ward 3 boundaries? I have heard that the primary
election voter data-base used the new precincts but the Redistricting Notice
card I received in the mail earlier this Fall didn't list which ward I am
in."
[BRM] Good question. The City may have purged the old ward and
precinct information, in which case running a special election would be
logistically difficult.
BRM
Brian Melendez
St. Anthony West (Ward 3)
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