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FAIRFIELD, Conn. Fairfields two major political parties still cannot agree on a new plan for the towns polling places for the upcoming elections. The delay could end up costing Fairfields taxpayers later this year, according to the Republican Party.
The cost of failing to implement a bonafide redistricting plan may cost the Town of Fairfield $25,000-plus this election season alone, Representative Town Meeting member Peter Ambrose, R-2, said in a statement. Our town can ill afford to spend such additional monies in these challenging economic times when families are struggling to make ends meet.
The RTM redraws Fairfields district boundaries every 10 years using the latest U.S. Census data and the changed borders of the Connecticut General Assemblys districts. Fairfield saw many changes at the state level last fall about 51 percent of the towns voters are in new districts for the state House of Representatives.
The new overlap between town-level and state-level districts has created 21 separate polling districts for the upcoming statewide election. Without a change to Fairfields districts, the registrars of voters would need to hire staff and rent machines to cover 21 distinct divisions, although they would be located at Fairfields 10 current polling places.
The Republicans say this would cost Fairfield more than $25,000 in 2012, with the primary Aug. 14 and the general election in November. The Democrats, however, disagreed with that figure.
To date, the Redistricting Committee was never given an official number by the registrars of the additional cost for not having a redistricting plan in place if any, Deputy Minority Leader Kevin Hoffkins, D-7, said in a statement.
The six-member committee is made up of Republicans Hank Ference, David Becker and Joseph Palmer and Democrats Leonora Campbell, John Mitola and Hoffkins. The full plan would be voted on by the Republican-controlled full RTM, but it needs at least four votes to move out of committee. So far, the group has not taken any votes.
The main debate at the committee so far has been the number of districts to use. This would determine how many people go into Fairfields legislature, as well as how many polling places would be used on Election Day.
The Republicans have proposed cutting the number to eight, while the Democrats want to stay with the current 10. A compromise of nine was proposed last month, but neither side agreed to the exact boundary lines of the districts.
Members of both sides seemed to be really pleased that the compromise plan suggested by Rep. Mitola was a way to move the Redistricting process forward, Ference said in a statement. We were deeply disappointed when we heard the news from Democrat Deputy Minority Leader Kevin Hoffkins that his caucus was unwilling to compromise with us yet again.
The Democrats, however, say that they would be willing to vote for a nine-district plan, but want to make sure the districts do not give the Republicans an unfair advantage in forming the RTM. They added that the savings from cutting down the number of polling places would be meaningless compared to the full budget.
Simply put 10 districts has worked well over the last 10 years, Hoffkins said. He added, The Republicans have failed to make the case for reducing the number of districts and causing disruption in our election system.
The committee was set to meet again Monday night, but the Democratic caucus asked for a cancellation that morning. In order to change polling places by the August primary, the committee would need to schedule a meeting, agree on a plan, and hold a special meeting of the full RTM by Friday.
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