County approves redistricting maps for precincts, elections

The district maps were unveiled at the Young County Commissioners Court meeting Monday at the Young County Courthouse. The maps included changes in late November changes made in rural eastern parts of Precinct 3. Changes were also made with Precincts 2 and 3.

Young County Elections Administrator Lauren Sullivan spoke Monday to propose further redistricting of election precinct boundaries. Sullivan proposed two precinct mergers.

“Because the way we’re redistricting the commissioner district, there were four itsy bitsy voter precincts that we are going to try to combine,” Sullivan said. “So (Voting Precincts) 6 and 7, and 16 and 20 will combine. And that way we get a little bit more bang for our buck that way because every time we order a different ballot style, it costs more money. There’s not any real differences on the ballots in those areas and so there’s no reason to keep them separate anymore (...) They’re both such small areas that especially when we moved that district line, in Precinct 3, we lost somewhere between 50 and 100 voters in Precinct 7 and so that got us down to about 100 voters in that district and it doesn’t seem fair to make them pay for their own separate ballot when it’s not any different than their next door neighbors.”

Young County uses county-wide voting so this will mean little noticeable changes to voters in those precincts. County-wide voting is where eligible registered voters can vote at any polling location within their home county. Sullivan’s proposed changes passed with a unanimous vote.

The changes to the commissioner’s precincts were voted on after discussing during a regular meeting Nov. 15. Young County Judge John Bullock presented two proposals for discussion in the form of maps. According to Bullock, the second proposal came at the request of Precinct 3 commissioner Stacy Rogers.

For the rest of the story, see the Dec. 15 edition of The Graham Leader.