New Haven Independent

The RTM will meet July 30 to take up a series of redistricting issues that have to be decided quickly in order to be in place by the November 4, presidential election.

The RTM’s Rules & Ordinance committee took a series of actions at a nearly two-hour meeting on June 26. A major change centers on shifting thousands of voters in the 4th District from the Canoe brook Senior Center to the Mary Murphy School, a ground-level location with ample parking and easy access. Canoe Brook had problems with handicapped access and parking, according to the Registrar of Voters Office. If approved, the registrars will send voters postcards to inform them of the change.

At the request of the R & O committee, the Registrar of Voters also unveiled a new Branford redistricting map that involves creating a sixth election district. There was also talk of a possible seventh election district. Expanding the districts will be dealt with at a later date, Alinor Sterling, the chair of R&O, said. Any expansion is likely to be in place by 2009, when the first selectman and all 30 RTM members are up for election. Adding additional voting districts would change the town’s political borders and would reduce or add RTM members in the districts.

The RTM will hear the committee’s recommendations at a special meeting. Typically the RTM adopts committee recommendations. Leaders of both the Democratic and Republican parties have been involved in this redistricting process and have attended the meetings. So have the registrars, Democrat Dan Hally and Republican Marion Burkard, who have sought speedy action.

R&O’s actions were taken at Orchard House rather than Canoe Brook because Sterling’s committee wanted to personally inspect the building to determine if it could handle District Three voters in Short Beach.

After examining the dining room, the registrars seemed satisfied District 3 could continue to vote at Orchard House. So the initial proposal to move District Three from Orchard House to the Branford Hills School, a move that many in the Short Beach community opposed, was unanimously rejected.

The committee also decided on other district realignments and polling places. About 116 voters who are members of the 5th district and the 98th State Assembly District will now vote in the 2nd district at St. Therese Church on Leete’s Island Road. The committee gave formal approval to this move.

Of all the ideas bandied about, the creation of a sixth and possibly a seventh district elicited a good deal of discussion. If a sixth district is created, approximately 3,400 voters would have their polling place moved twice in two years (once to Mary Murphy for this election and then to another polling place for next year’s local election). But the committee seemed to think it was worth it.

Hally also asked the committee to consider transferring approximately 1,200 voters in the 1st district who are also members of the 98th State assembly district into the 2nd district. The reason is that the polling place for the first, the Community House, is expected to be very crowded this election. The rest of Branford falls within the 102nd Assembly District.

Burkard indicated some concern as to whether the registrars would be able to handle the transfer of 1,200 additional voters on such short notice. Since this idea was not included in the scope of an agenda motion made by Rep. Joseph Bodner III, the committee decided to lay it aside until the committee met again.

The R&O’s proposed changes will be reviewed by the registrars, by Town Counsel William Clendenen, Jr and by the R&O again. It will then be sent to the full 30-member RTM at least five days before the July 30 meeting. If the RTM approves the changes, then the voters will be notified.
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