Wicomico Districts Slightly Changed

SALISBURY – The Wicomico County Council voted this week to make a slight amendment to its redrawn election districts.

The Resolution states, “the Wicomico County Council have established Councilmanic districts. Subsequent to the establishment of the Councilmanic districts, the State of Maryland concluded the realignment of state legislative districts. As a result of the State’s realignment of the legislative districts, a precinct containing one block with a single voter was created.

The Wicomico County Board of Election Supervisors has requested a modification of the boundaries of Councilmanic Districts 1 and 2 to eliminate the single voter precinct to avoid the expense and confusion that may accompany reporting election results with a single voter precinct.”

Wicomico County Board of Elections Director Anthony Gutierrez submitted, the Board of Elections had discovered the certain Census block, currently assigned to Legislative District 37-B and Councilmanic District 1, has only one registered voter living on Old Quantico Rd, which would necessitate creating a special precinct for that one person.

“We respectfully request the administration and the county attorney endorse our request for the County Council to consider making a technical revision to change this Census block’s councilmanic district assignment from District 1 to District 2. By doing so, we may then assign this voter to an adjacent voting district/precinct, thus protecting the privacy of their vote by reporting their results with a large group of other voters,” said Gutierrez, adding a similar situation regarding the elimination of a “ghost precinct” arose during the 2000 Redistricting process, which was presented to the County Council on Aug. 6, 2002.

Councilman Bob Culver pointed out there are other homes along that street and asked would happen if other residents registered to vote.

“The surrounding areas are in different legislative districts, and the legislative assignments in the district at this time is what caused this discrepancy with that one particular property … so what we are suggesting to do is have this property reassigned to put them with the same councilmanic district,” Gutierrez said. “The other homes are correctly assigned and since there is enough population in that particular precinct there is not the same need as this one particular piece of property.”

The council voted unanimously to make a slight revision to change the Census block’s councilmanic district assignment from District 1 to District 2.