New redistricting plan calls for revised split

Whitman County elections officials Monday unveiled a new redistricting plan that balances out populations in three commissioner districts by a revision of the general pie carving pattern for Pullman. The plan calls for re-assignment of Pullman precincts to new commissioner district. Fourteen precincts will be consolidated.

The new plan replaces the plan that was proposed last week. It would have created a massive rural District 1 and concentrated the population in District 3 in Pullman.

“It would make more sense to just weight it in Pullman,” said Commissioner Michael Largent, who represents District 3.

Elections Supervisor Debbie Hooper said the plan reported last week was assembled based on the number of registered voters in each district.

After speaking with elections officials in the Secretary of State’s office, Whitman County officials learned they should instead balance the districts using population counts from the 2010 U.S. Census.

Auditor Eunice Coker said the voter-based redistricting plan included the rural shifts because drawing lines around city streets and its multiple precincts would have required expertise the county doesn’t have.

“Pullman is just more difficult to do,” said Coker, stressing a county-owned Geographic Information System, or GIS, would have made the job easier.

Courtney Thompson, a GIS technician for Lincoln County’s public works department, was contracted by the county to help draw the new district lines.

By using the population counts, said Hooper, they were able to draw new commissioner districts in Pullman based on the lines for the city’s three city council wards. That avoided the previously-considered rural shift.

“That saved a lot of angst,” said Tom Kammerzell, port commissioner from District 3. “Because a lot of rural folks were not real appreciative of losing a commissioner.”

The plan unveiled Monday shifted seven precincts in Pullman to balance the population in the three districts.

Precincts 122, 123 and 125 will be added to District 1. District 2 will get precincts 126 and 130 from District 1. District 3 will get precincts 118 and 218 from District 2.

Commissioner Greg Partch said he would have liked to have three options to consider.

A hearing on the redistricting plan will be April 30. It is due to the Secretary of State May 4.

Coker said the looming deadine would make it harder to produce multiple options for commissioners to consider before adoption after the hearing.

Fourteen precincts will also be consolidated in Pullman, as will the urban Colfax precincts, numbers 149 and 140, under the plan. Hooper said that consolidation will cut down on the number of ballot formats the county has to produce.

Because precinct and taxing district boundaries are not aligned, Whitman County has 162 different types of ballots, more than any other county in the state. Hooper noted 14 different ballot combinations are mailed to voters in Endicott alone.

Carolyn Cress, vice-chair of the county Democratic party, said she did not like the new plan, mostly because it would move her into a new commissioner district.

Cress also urged the county to mail out new registration cards to voters. Very few attendees at last Sunday’s Democratic caucus, she said, had cards.

Hooper said new cards will be mailed out to voters who are moved into new precincts or districts.