Marshall County Election Board members Deb VanDeMark and Sean Surrisi presented the board’s recommendation to the commissioners Monday morning concerning the redistricting and reprecincting maps.
The redistricting and reprecincting process is typically done following the census. With the completion of the census in 2020, the time has come for counties to consider redistricting and reprecincting to be within certain state guidelines concerning the population perimeters of representation.
At the state level, VanDeMark explained that the Senate Districts have changed.
“The majority of Marshall County is going to be represented by the Senator which will include Starke County and La Porte County, except for German Township which will go with Kosciusko County,” said VanDeMark. “So, you can see there is a big change as far as the Senate District goes.”
The House of Representatives District will change slightly.
VanDeMark continued, “Our Representative had all of Marshall County in the past and they’ve pulled North Township to go out with St. Joseph County. So, there is a change there.”
The local districts will not need to be modified as they are within correct perimeters. However, Surrisi commented there is a slight change for reprecincting and the deadline to submit that paperwork to the state is October 15.
“We did make one change in the recommendations of the precincts as far as doing away with the West City of Plymouth precinct which is just a small sliver within the city that is to the west of Pioneer Drive. No people live in that precinct and it’s been a number of years since anyone has lived there. We thought that it would be simplest to get rid of that as a separate precinct and add it into the adjacent West Township precinct.”
With that, the Marshall County Commissioners approved a motion that approves the elimination of West City of Plymouth precinct and combines it with West 1 Township for a new total of 29 precincts in Marshall County.
The commissioners have until December 31, 2021 to consider an ordinance that approves local redistricting, although no changes are proposed.
