County redistricting grid misses state deadline

Though the deadline for changing commissioner district boundaries has passed, Whitman County plans to vote next week to approve new districts.

Commissioners in a public hearing Monday were presented with three differed proposals from the elections department of the county auditor’s office.

Each of the plans is intended to equalize the number of residents in each commissioner district.

Pullman resident Dave Gibney pointed out at the hearing that the new district map was supposed to be finalized by Monday which is 14 days before candidates can file for office.

“The pickle we’re in right now... is we should be adopting this today,” agreed County Auditor Eunice Coker.

Redistricting is required to balance populations in election districts after the 2010 census.

Coker blamed the delay on the lack of county-owned mapping software and an over-taxed elections department.

“It’s a grossly understaffed staffing issue,” said Coker.

Commissioners agreed to contract with a mapping expert from Lincoln County to draw the new district lines, but that process did not begin until February.

Commissioners considered approving the new plan Monday, but Francis Benjamin, a member of the Pullman city council, said they must allow seven days for public comment after the hearing before final approval of the plan.

Coker said she did not know if there would be any repercussions from higher authorities for passing a plan after the deadline.

She recommended commissioners approve a new district plan next Monday and “take the heat.”

“And I realize that could be hot heat,” she said.

Gibney said passing a plan after the deadline could change the districts of potential candidates for county commissioner.

“But I am not aware of anybody that’s going to sue you for not putting them in a district they wanted to file,” he said.

The three plans presented Monday carve up Pullman to equalize population figures in the three districts within the city.

None of the declared candidates for the two commissioner races would be bumped from their present districts by the proposed changes.

Coker said the plan also includes an addition of 13 new precincts. Coker said she was advised by the state Secretary of State’s office to split out precincts which had voters in both urban and rural areas.