Maine Legislative (and other non-congressional) Redistricting

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Do county commissioners draw their own districts in many states?

County board districts in IL are drawn by the county boards themselves. A simple majority vote of the county board is needed to adopt the redistricting ordinance. The same rules apply to redistricting wards in IL cities.

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Kennebec Journal

January 24
Augusta prepares to reapportion voting wards

By Keith Edwards kedwards@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- The boundary lines separating the city's voting wards need to be redrawn, which would result in some voters moving to a new ward, without actually moving anywhere.
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In another ward voting issue, councilors also discussed designating Cony High School as the permanent Ward 4 polling place. The ward has been without a permanent polling place since St. Andrew Church closed....

The November elections were held in the music room at Cony.

Full Story

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Interestingly, I'm pretty sure Cony High School is in Ward 2 (according to this Municipal Street List, South Belfast Ave. (Route 105 from where it separates from Cony Street) is a boundary between Wards 2 and 4 troughout it's length, and Cony High School is south of that which would be the Ward 2 side).  There's no law against that that I'm aware of, however (there may be in some cities or states), and in some instances with odd ward shapes the most convenient voting place for the overall population of a voting district ward might not be in that voting district.  In Auburn, Maine within the last... say 13 years (and perhaps still) I recall two voting districts whose voting locations were in the other of those two districts.  That is odder than the present temorary (and perhaps soon to become permanant) Augusta situation, as the voting place for Ward 2 is the Augusta City Center which is in Ward 2, although the other side of Cony Street from the City Center is in Ward 4.  The other side of South Belfast Ave. from the Cony High School complex is in Ward 4 also.  I'm not sure which location is closer to the ward line but the City Center is closer to the area west of the Kennebec River that is in Ward 2, so it being the Ward 2 polling place rather than Cony High School makes sense.

Also, I've read in the past that the 10% standard is as a percentage of the ideal (average) population per representative, city councillor, whatever, rather than that of either of the two districts being compared, or the smallest district as the article suggests (the deviation would always be larger as a percentage of the smallest district, if only infinitesmally larger).  It probably doesn't make much of a difference in practice, though.

If there's a challenge the most common measure is the range. That is the population difference between the most and least populous districts divided by the ideal district population, then expressed as a percent. Usually there is no challenge to a range under 10% for local districts, though that can vary by state.

Polling places in many states are indeed outside of the voting district. In IL many counties have moved to consolidated polling places that service multiple precincts.

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How important are the counties in Maine's redistricting? There seems to be some following of the lines, but clearly towns are most important as they are elsewhere in New England.

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Another provision that might be helpful is to allow individuals adversely affected by redistricting to avoid residency requirements in the first election after the remap. The IL constitution (Art IV Sect 2(c)) says:

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This doesn't unduly favor current officeholders since it applies to all candidates. It also provides for a time period to move into a new district for those candidates who take advantage of the provision.