Voters in the city of Chardon and Bainbridge Township should be aware of changes to their local voting precincts.
Voters in the city of Chardon and Bainbridge Township should be aware of changes to their local voting precincts.
The redrawn lines, approved by the Geauga County Board of Elections in January, are due to population growth, said board employee Ramona Saikaly and board member Joan Windnagel during the Geauga County Republican Party’s Feb. 4 meeting.
“Bainbridge Township is bursting at the seams and so we have had to add Prescinct J,” said Windnagel, who was at the meeting as chair of the republican party.
Ohio law limits precincts to 1,400 voters, Saikaly said.
“When members of the board of elections become aware that some precincts are actually too close to that number, they consider the process of changing precinct lines to either create new precincts or modify existing ones,” she explained. “The goal here is to have precincts that have less than 1,400 voters with enough room for growth and where both Republicans and Democrats are fairly represented.”
The board ordered maps from the Geauga County Geographic Information Systems department and reviewed a variety of data, including roads and census blocks, Saikaly said.
Precinct J was created in Bainbridge, with 723 voters, carved out of Precincts B, D and F, she said. Chardon did not gain a new precinct, but 231 voters were moved from Precinct D to C.
Voters in Chardon Precincts C and D will cast ballots at Heritage House, while Bainbridge Precinct J voters will go to the Bainbridge Library, Saikaly said.
Because the new precinct lines cross census blocks, the board obtained a waiver from the state to implement the changes, she noted.
The creation of Bainbridge Precinct J also requires four new poll workers — two Republicans and two Democrats — to staff the precinct during elections, Saikaly said.
