Voters will notice some changes in next year’s election after the Brown County Commissioners formally approved reconfiguring Washington Township to three precincts and plan to look at possibly redistricting county council districts.
Changes are possibly coming to the district lines for four Brown County Council seats after Clerk Kathy Smith told the commissioners earlier this month the county has a population deviation gap in its Census data.
The county’s population also increased to 15,475 in 2020, according to Census data.
In 2010 the county’s population was 15,242
Along with the population deviation gap, the county council district lines are also being looked at partly due to the precinct change in Washington Township beginning with next year’s election.
“We’re looking to see if we have any better options than what we already have,” Commissioner Diana Biddle said.
The Brown County Commissioners met in a special meeting last week on Oct. 13 to further discuss the possibility of redistricting the county council districts. Census tract information shows the county’s population deviation from 10 years ago is 19 percent, which is nearly twice the allowable percent the county needs to redistrict, Clerk Kathy Smith told the commissioners on Oct. 6.
Last week the commissioners notified the Indiana Election Commission that they were looking into redistricting the county council districts and that they had approved an order establishing three precincts in Washington Township instead of four.
In August, the Brown County Election Board recommended and the Brown County Commissioners approved reconfiguring all of Washington Township’s four voting precincts. The order establishing the new districts was approved on Oct. 13.
Washington Township includes voters who live inside the town limits of Nashville and voters who live outside town limits but still have Nashville postal addresses. This has caused some confusion in past elections.
The changes that will take place in 2022 and beyond are:
The four voting precincts in Washington Township will be condensed to three.
All in-town Nashville voters will be in Washington 2.
Out-of-town voters who used to be split between Washington 2 and Washington 3 will now be added to Washington 1.
The current Washington 4 will be renamed Washington 3.
In June, the Nashville Town Council decided to elect all of its members at-large from among in-town residents instead of requiring three of them to live in specific areas of Nashville. That opened the conversation among members of the county election board into changing all the Washington Township voting precincts as well.
At the Oct. 20 commissioners meeting, which starts at 2 p.m. in the Salmon Room at the County Office Building, the plan is to have the updated precinct map reflecting the three Washington precincts ready for residents to pick up and try to color in new boundaries for the four council districts.
Gary Huett is the District 1 council member. Hamblen 1, Hamblen 3 and Jackson 2 currently make up district 1.
Darren Byrd represents District 2, which currently includes Hamblen 2, Jackson 1 and Jackson 3.
Dave Redding is the District 3 council member, which is currently Washington 1, 2 and 3.
Art Knight is from District 4, which now includes Jackson 4, all of Van Buren Township and Washington 4, which will be renamed Washington 3 next year.
The school board and commissioner districts will not need to be redistricted in light of new Census data and the changes to Washington Township since all county voters cast their vote in each of those races, Biddle said.
Districts are used for school board and commissioner races to give interested candidates an assigned area to represent, Smith said last week.
“It gives definition to the county so it is proportioned out,” she said.
The county council districts must be split among 11 precincts and a council district must include precincts that touch boundaries.
“We only have those 11 pieces of the puzzle that we can use for the new districts,” Biddle said.
Biddle said she wants input on possible district line changes from the Democrat and Republican party chairs along with their central committees and the League of Women Voters.
The public is also invited to pick up a map at the commissioners meeting this week and turn it back into the commissioners before their Nov. 3 meeting when they plan to look at all of the proposed changes, Biddle said.
“Basically we have 15,000 people in the county, so the goal would be to have between 3,800 and 4,000 per council district, how will you split those numbers?” Biddle said.
“Those (11 precincts) are the only puzzle pieces you have to work with.”
The commissioners are responsible for making any changes to the districts in the county while the election board can recommend changes to the precincts to the commissioners.
The new Washington 2 precinct, which is all of Nashville, will have around 1,258 people in it. There is a plus or minus variation of about 40 people, Biddle said.
Washington 1 would become the largest precinct with 2,445 people in it and Washington 3 would have about 1,463.
Any changes to the council district lines would have to be turned into the state before Dec. 30.
Smith said the sooner the commissioners can make a decision and submit a new map the better since other counties are already working on redistricting following changes legislators made to the statewide district map this year.
“My goal is to be able to move forward in this and get everyone’s input and still not be at the end of the line,” Smith said.
The new congressional map that Gov. Eric Holcomb recently signed into law keeps Brown County in the same U.S. Congressional district with Rep. Trey Hollingsworth. The county’s state Senate district is still 44, but now the county is in House district 62 under Rep. Jeff Ellington. Previously the county was in House district 65.
