Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Voters will notice some major changes when they go to the polls in the next few years.
Some voters may be represented by all-new legislators. Others may notice the new voting machines and the way votes are counted.
"Every 10 years after the census is taken and the results are in, then all counties, at least in Indiana, have to go through redistricting, and that is to adjust the precincts to where the population is," said Kosciusko County Clerk Sharon Christner. "Some precincts may have way too many people in them, some may not have very many, so it'll shift that way.
"Also, every 10 years is when the legislatures draw up their new district lines. And we have to take those into consideration." She said the election board goes through the district maps and history of registered voters to see what precincts are too large. The maximum they can be, she said, is 1,500 registered voters.
"We have to get them low enough that it still allows for growth within the precinct," she said.
The process of redistricting, Christner said, is a lengthy one.
"The clerk and her voter registration committee go through the maps and the polling history to see where the registered voters are and figure out where they feel we need to make the changes.
"We have to wait on the legislatures to tell us where the congressional districts are before we can make any changes because their changes come first. We cannot split a precinct with their boundaries. Then once we get that, we need to get the commissioners' and the council districts and get those overlaid on our maps.
"Then we need to take them where we can get GIS readings as far as our boundary lines. We have to do an order, notify the party chairmen of what precincts are changing and why, we have to call the Indiana Election division. They have to come up, look at our maps, then they have to take it down to Indianapolis and it has to be approved. Once it's approved, they notify us.
"We (then) have to notify the public and we have to make all the changes within the system, changing whatever precincts need to be changed, changing the voters and all that and notify the voters of the changes."
Candidates for next year's election will begin registering to run in January. Christner said the changes have to be made by then. "That's to have everything done, including notifying people as to where they'll be voting," Christner said.
Christner said the redistricting for U.S. and state officeholders in Indiana is completed.
"For the U.S. congressional, the entire county is going to be third district," said Christner. "Our district is now along with Fort Wayne instead of going toward South Bend as it was before."
For state senators, Christner said, Kosciusko County will have four districts - 9, 13, 17 and 18 - effective Jan. 1. Currently, Kosciusko County districts for state senators are 9, 12, 13, 17 and 18.
State representative districts in Kosciusko County will be 18, 22 and 23, effective Jan. 1. Currently, the districts are the 16, 18 and 22. "So we're dropping the 16th and picking up the 23," Christner said.
She said she has not met with the Kosciusko County commissioners and council to find out what changes they want to make.
As for voting machines, Christner said: "We're looking into it. The election board has not come to a final decision, they still have another company they want to look at, and then once we make our decision, it'll be up to the commissioners to get the funding and purchase it."
State mandate, she said, has given them until 2003 to change the system. State law also will reimburse the county for up to 50 percent of the county's cost.
While the voting system and the redistricting will be the major changes voters may notice, Christner said, there will be some behind-the-scenes changes as well.
"We're trying to get basically an upgrade on our voter registration to make it easier for us to get all the work done that needs to be done. We'll also be able to hook up to Indianapolis. That's also one of the mandates - we have so many years to have a system to hook up to the Indianapolis database for voter registration," she said.
For the primaries, voters must be registered 30 days before the election. Thirty days after the primary, voter registration will reopen so residents can register to vote in the general election if they did not vote in the primary. Voter registration will then close 30 days before the general election.
Election board members are Christner, Tom Lemon and Steve Hearn.
