By BILL MARDIS, Editor Emeritus
A maze of state representative and magisterial district boundaries is causing headaches for members of the Pulaski County Board of Elections as they realign municipal precinct boundaries to eliminate confusion before local elections next year.
One of the main goals during a meeting of the board of elections Wednesday was to make it possible for all city voters to vote in city precincts. Somerset, for example, has 11 full precincts and five partial precincts within the corporate limits.
Split precincts, partly within the city but mostly outside, are Caney Fork No. 13, Rush Branch No. 14, Gilliland No. 40, Vaught No. 43 and Somerset No. 6. Most of Somerset No. 6 is within the corporate limits of Somerset but the city of Ferguson nudges into its boundary.
Split precincts create confusing and sometimes testy situations for both voters and precinct officers who must determine eligibility of voters in city or school board elections by their addresses. And in some cases, voters have to go to out-of-way places to cast their ballots.
Until this past year, Somerset voters who live in Gilliland No. 40 had to vote at the VFW club at Barnesburg, more than five miles east of Somerset off Ky. 80. Pulaski County Clerk Ralph Troxtell brought the Gilliland voting place closer for city voters by moving it to Eagle Heights Church off Ky. 914.
City voters in Village Green subdivision off Rush Branch Road still vote at Rush Branch No. 14 in Haynes Knob Fire Station, more than a shift of gears east of the corporate limits on Ky. 769.
In the Caney Fork precinct, residents of Somerset vote at King of Kings Radio Station, off Ky. 39 at 93 Rainbow Terrace Drive. Somerset residents in Vaught precinct vote at Hal Rogers Fire Training Center off Ky. 1247 in Saddlebrook subdivision.
Science Hill City No. 22 is larger that the corporate limits of Science Hill. A few residents, particularly on Ky. 1676, live in No. 22 but outside the city limits. The board of elections will try to realign No. 22 to correspond with the city’s boundaries.
Troxtell said there is not much the board of elections can do to realign Eubank No. 25. because the northernmost Pulaski County city extends into southern Lincoln County. Residents of Eubank’s Tower-Vue subdivision (about 10 houses) vote at Waynesburg No. 2 precinct in Lincoln County.
Burnside, made up of all or parts of five precincts, is so criss-crossed by state legislative district lines that it is practically impossible to create an all-city precinct, Troxtell said.
Annexation creates the problems. In other words, when a city expands its territory, precinct lines stay the same. Residents taken inside corporate limits of the city become city residents and eligible to vote in city elections. However, according to state law, they must vote in the precinct where they live.
Troxtell has vowed since he took office two and a half years ago to fix the problem; to realign city precincts wherever possible so city voters live in city precincts.
Rick Barker and Mark Vaught, both members of the county board of elections, said Wednesday that small pocket precincts may be necessary because of barriers to changing some precinct boundaries. Troxtell said there may not be voting places in many of the pocket precincts but there will be separate books of registered voters in the pocket precincts and voting will be done in adjacent city precincts.
Responsibility for establishing precinct boundaries lies with the county board of elections. Precinct boundaries and changes must be approved by the State Board of Elections.
Current precinct realignments to put city voters in city precincts must be submitted for approval to the State Board of Elections by December 18, Troxtell said. The state board has recently approved written descriptions and maps of Pulaski County’s existing precinct boundaries. The documents, previously unavailable, required six months of intensive labor, Barker said.
A precinct boundary can’t just go across the field or through somebody’s yard. State law requires that it follow a defined physical feature such as railroad tracks, waterways, roads, pipelines, mountain ridge lines or power lines. A precinct boundary line also cannot cross a state line, county line, congressional district line, state senatorial or legislative district line or magisterial district line.
County board of election members Wednesday emphasized that no boundaries of magisterial districts or wards in the city of Somerset will be changed prior to local elections next year. Several magisterial and Somerset City Council candidates are already announced and campaigning.
Magisterial districts may be realigned in 2011, after next year’s local elections and following the national census next year. Barker said changing magisterial district lines may allow elimination of some pocket precincts created for city voters.
School division and district lines cannot be changed by the county board of elections. School lines are established by boards of education.
Troxtell said all voting places in the county must have sufficient room for voters to seat themselves at tables and mark paper ballots. Next year will be the first time since the 1960s that voting in all precincts will be done on paper ballots. However, the difference now is that votes will be tallied by optical scanners, not hand-counted as in olden days. An eSlate electronic voting machine will remain at each precinct for physically challenged.
Also, the board of elections said all voting places next year will have rest rooms. “No portable toilets will be used,” Barker promised.
