Durham Redistricting Could Prove a "Nightmare"

Durham First Selectwoman Laura Francis is trying to see the upside of redistricting, under which her town would be carved up into four General Assembly districts, two each in the House and Senate.

“Everyone wants a piece of Durham, I guess,” she said.  “Everybody wants us.”

Still, the proposals to split Durham among the House’s 86th and 101st districts and the Senate’s 34th and 12th districts is no laughing matter to Francis, who sees the plans, approved Wednesday by the legislature’s Reapportionment Commission and awaiting approval by the secretary of the state, as a major logistical problem for Durham.

“This is an administrative nightmare in terms of elections,” Francis said. “We might be required to have 3 or 4 different ballots depending on how the congressional districts are redrawn. The town clerk and registrars are going to have to look at the requirements for polling places. Right now we’re allowed to have our two polling places under one roof. Will this require us to have three different polling places? This is going to be difficult for us.”

Under state law, the town’s population is low enough that it can put both of its polling places in one location. The polls are currently at Korn Elementary School on Pickett Lane.

But if the town has four distinct districts or more it will likely be required to add more polling locations. That would be difficult because of the requirements of state and federal laws on what types of buildings can be open to the public or used as polling places, Francis said.  Finding new polling places, and having to print multiple ballots at election time, she said, could be costly.

Under the current state district boundaries, all of Durham is part of the 100th House Assembly District, which includes Middlefield and part of Middletown. In the state Senate, all of Durham is also part of the 12th District, which runs south to the shoreline and includes Killingworth, Guilford, Madison and North Branford.

Under the redistricting plan, Durham would be split in two, roughly along the path of Route 17, with the western one-third of the town being part of the House’s 86th District and the Senate’s 34th District. The remaining part of the town would be in the House’s 101st District and the Senate’s 12th District.

The changes would take affect in the next election in November of 2012.

Under the change, the Senate’s 12th District, currently represented by Democrat Edward Meyer, the Senate’s majority leader, would lose about 2,000 voters.

While Meyer said the impact of losing those voters would likely be nominal on his re-election bid next year, “I’m sorry because I’ve enjoyed representing all of Durham and to split up a small town like that is not good.”

Francis said she urged the legislature’s Reapportionment Commission to consider the negative administrative issues that would come with splitting the town up among multiple districts, but her concerns were ignored.

And while the commission has lauded itself on having reached bipartisan agreements on redistricting, Francis said she doesn’t see it that way.

“There’s plenty of politics that go on during a redistricting. Any redistricting is about protecting incumbents. You have to believe that is what went on this year.”