County Clerk Presents Commissioners With Redistricting Information
County Clerk Presents Commissioners With Redistricting Information
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
County Clerk Presents Commissioners With Redistricting InformationOf the three Kosciusko County Commissioner districts, the southern one is the least populated, according to the 2020 U.S. Census figures County Clerk Ann Torpy presented to the Commissioners Tuesday.
Because of the population changes over the last decade, the Commissioners’ districts will have to change, too, to make them more even.
“I’m here for two reasons and both of them have to do with the 2020 Census and changes to our county precincts,” Torpy said.
For the first reason, based on the Census, she gave the Commissioners the population for each Commissioner district and “where we need to be as far as deviation as state recommends.”
Currently, the northern district, represented by Brad Jackson, has 26,220 residents. The middle district, represented by Cary Groninger, has 33,919 residents. The southern district has 20,101 residents. The Commissioner target population per district is 26,747.
“The state recommends, or has in effect, the deviation has to be under 10%, and, currently, the way we stand we’re at 52% deviation between the southern and middle districts,” Torpy said.
Target population per district is calculated by dividing the total population by the total number of districts.
She said the Commissioners are required to review the numbers every 10 years and try to get the population of their districts down to where they meet the state’s requirements. They have until Dec. 31 to come up with a new district plan.
“I wanted to let you know that the city of Warsaw is growing greatly. It’s coming into Wayne Township and Plain Township. Those two alone would be around 28,000 residents in that area,” Torpy said, adding that the Commissioners should keep those two townships in mind.
She pointed out that the southern district “doesn’t have nearly the population as the northern and middle part of it, so pretty soon we’re just going to have the middle district just be the center of the county, I feel, unless we can divide it up a little differently.”
A proposed map for the Commissioners’ redistricting was given to them. The redistricting is the Commissioners’ responsibility, Torpy said, and not the Election Board’s. The proposal includes moving the following precincts to the southern district: Harrison 2, Etna Township, Prairie Township and Plain 4.
“It’s just a starting point for the three of you on that as well,” she said of the proposed map. “I’m not saying this is the way it should be done. It’s just a starting point.”
Groninger asked her if the proposed map brings the districts to within the 10% deviation. She said it brought them to within about 5%.
Torpy then brought up the second reason she was before the Commissioners Tuesday.
“As you know, the governor recently signed into effect House Bill 1581 and that changed the districts of the State Senate, U.S. House and the State House boundary lines,” she said. “Kosciusko County always seems to be the one that ends up having to create new precincts because of those new district lines.”
She presented an order to the Commissioners to reprecinct.
“We had to establish two new precincts because of the changes. Between Senate district 9 and 18, they took a portion of Wayne 6, which is in the northwest corner of Wayne Township, and divided it between 18 and 9. Senate lines can not cross precinct boundaries, so we have to create a whole new precinct in order to accommodate this corner,” she explained. “And, U.S. Congressional District 2 and 3, they took in, for Congressional district 3 for them to balance out in their end, they took in a whole portion of Wayne 2. Actually, one Census block.”
She said they have to create a whole new precinct for one Census block that has a total of 67 residents.
The order establishing the precincts has to be turned in to the Indiana Election Division this week.
“This redistricting got behind compared to past years and we’re in a rush on that,” Torpy said. “The only changes we’re making are partly because we have to between annexations from the city of Warsaw and Winona Lake, and the state changes to the district lines. Those are the only ones. We’re not making any changes to our other precincts because of population size. Since we’re a center county, our precincts are within population guidelines that the state has set.”
The Commissioners unanimously approved the precinct order creating the two new precinct and re-establishing the precinct lines.
On Thursday night, Torpy will present the County Council’s population numbers to the Council. She said that redistricting is also the Commissioners’ responsibility but the Council’s total populations currently are within 7%.
“I feel we that shouldn’t mess with those at this time, but again, you will have that ability to make that decision, not me,” Torpy concluded.
The total county population as of the 2020 Census is 80,240, according to information Torpy provided after the meeting. The County Council target population per district is 20,060. The current population per district is: District 1, 20,370 residents; D2, 19,769; D3, 20,718; and D4, 19,383. There are also three County Council at-large seats.
