Redistricting of Takoma Park’s Wards Not Likely for 2011 Election

Takoma Park will probably not be changing the configuring of the city’s voting wards for the 2011 election—scheduled for Nov. 8—because the time needed to do so is running out, said the Board of Elections (BOE).

There has not been any movement on the possible redistricting of Takoma Park wards because there has been very little interest from members of the public in joining a task force on that issue, said BOE member Jim Roberts, who is among the few applicants seeking membership on that panel.

The city council has been seeking members for a redistricting task force for at least two months, Roberts said during the BOE’s July 13 meeting.

As a result of the lack of response, the council has not made any appointments to a redistricting task force, said Takoma Park City Clerk Jessie Carpenter.

Carpenter said if a redistricting task force made recommendations for changes, “it would require a whole series of things, including public hearings that probably can’t happen now.”

Redistricting is a time consuming process that requires decisions be made, said Roberts, who has participated on ward redistricting. Once the field work is complete, the data has to be provided to the Montgomery County BOE so it can do what is necessary to divide the voters into the various wards. Because of that, Roberts does not support going forward with redistricting for the 2011 election.

“We [the BOE] should say we do not recommend redistricting for the coming election because we’re running to short of time,” he said. “We should probably tell them we’re past the deadline."

The discussion on redistricting was part of an agenda the BOE put together for a presentation on the board’s progress it is scheduled to make before the city council on July 18. Other agenda items for that presentation are:

Abstentee voters using “Scantegrity,” which is a security system for optical scan voting systems that uses confirmation codes to allow a voter to ensure their ballot has not been changed and is including in the final tally. Voters who want to use an absentee ballot need to request a ballot, or pick one up from the city, according to BOE Chairperson Anne Sergeant. Once a voter has a regular Scantegrity ballot, they vote on it, and return it through either the U.S. Postal System, or hand deliver it, she said. “It’s the absentee ballot model that we [Takoma Park] have been using,” she said.

The use of “Remotegrity,” which is an absentee voting system that uses both the postal and hand delivery/pick-up systems and the Internet. Under the postal system model, a ballot is delivered through the mail, and the voter uses the Internet to send in his or her vote. However, while a voter may choose to use only the postal system, voters cannot choose to use only the Internet. “For clarity, we’re exploring this and we haven’t decided yet,” Roberts said.