Redistricting Plan Could Cause Legal Mess

If approved by the voters in November, new voting ward boundaries drawn up this summer by city officials could create a legal maelstrom of problems and officials have no idea what to do to address the issues.

Two candidates vying for Concord city council ward seats – and – are living in areas of the city that will be moved from one ward to another, in the wake of voter approval of the redistricting plan. Kretovic lives in Ward 2 but the plan moves her into Ward 3; MacNeil lives in Ward 3 but the plan moves her into Ward 4.

If approved, the redistricting plan will be implemented on Jan. 1, 2012. New city councilors and the mayor will be sworn in on Jan. 9, 2012. But if the voters approve the redistricting and both candidates win, they will not be seated, according to , because they will no longer be residents of the wards they were elected to serve. Kennedy said that the city’s charter requires that any candidate elected to a ward city council seat must be a “domicile” of the ward.

“They won’t be domiciles in the ward,” he said.

If the voters reject the redistricting plans and the candidates win, they will be seated.

Reaction

Both Kretovic and MacNeil say they were shocked and astounded by the current process and that they might not be seated if they win their elections.

Kretovic stated that at first, it was suggested to her that she run in Ward 3. Later, she was told she could only run in Ward 2, because that is where she lives now. Then, she was told “the unthinkable – that I shouldn’t bother running at all because I would never be able to serve in either Ward. I entered the race with eyes wide open.”

MacNeil had a similar experience, noting that in an email she was told that if you did run and won the seat, she wouldn't be seated. She was of the redistricting that would essentially disenfranchise thousands of people from running or getting to vote on which person should be their councilor. MacNeil said that many residents will vote for one person in November and then, in January, another person will be their councilor, someone who the people in that ward never voted for.

MacNeil said she would openly suggest to voters that they should reject the redistricting plan.

“I guess I probably should,” she said. “It seems like the only thing the city council thought about was making sure that just in case they all decided to run for office, that they wouldn’t get redistricted … and not a thought, whether or not people might want to actually vote for the person who’s representing them and other people may want to wish to run for office and are suddenly being told that, yeah, you can file, you can sign up, you can run, but we’re not going to seat you. That’s unbelievable.”

Kretovic said she has been “assured that the city will explore whatever means possible to see that if I win, I can serve my fellow constituents in Ward 2.” She acknowledged that it wasn’t a guarantee “but a ray of hope.”

“So my focus is where any other candidate’s should be … have every confidence that I am running for all the right reasons and win,” she said. 

Unknowns

Officials admit that there are many unknowns right now since Concord has never encountered this problem before and they are scrambling to figure out what to do to alleviate the problems at both the state and local level. The disenfranchisement issue is one that is unconstitutional, since approval of the redistricting was done in such a way that it almost dissuades potential candidates from running and won’t seat them if they do win, leaving them essentially in electoral limbo, and leaving the city open to lawsuits.

“Everyone has to be given equal footing and equal ground, in eligibility to run for office,” Kennedy said. “This is the position we’re in right now and I’m surprised this hasn’t come up before.”

Kennedy said there was a plan for displacement of sitting city councilors if they were redistricted out of a ward after Jan. 1. A special election could be held for the vacancy. But that situation doesn’t apply, since there aren’t any vacancies and none of the incumbent councilors were redistricted out of their wards, and does not cover this situation. The city also did not come up with a displacement plan in the wake of potential candidates who might run and win and then be redistricted out later.

Kennedy said the attorney general’s office issued an order a number of years ago requiring the redistricting lines be in the charter and then have those changes approved by the voters, which has caused part of the problem. If the city could just approve the changes, they would have already been in place before the filing period started, he said.

“If we had redistricting lines by ordinance, we’d be golden right now,” he said. “Everybody would know what the ordinance would be.”

If the voters reject the redistricting, the city council will have to reconvene and create a new plan, according to Kennedy.

When asked if there was any way to change the redistricting date proposal to February, in order to allow for the winning candidates to be seated and then, redistricted out later, forcing a potential special election between potential candidates living in a ward, Kennedy said, “We’re going to have to consult the state on that.”

The Secretary of State’s Office has not been involved in the process of looking over or communicating with the city of Concord about its redistricting, according , the assistant Secretary of State, but he had heard some of the concerns from voters.

“I don’t know really how to respond to it,” he said of the situation. “It sounds like something that will need to be cleared up in the courts. It doesn’t sound fair.”

Scanlan said it would have been nice if there were a provision so that people would have known what ward they would be living in. He said he was not aware of anyone preparing a court case about it. Scanlan said he was not aware of any situation like this happening before.

“No matter what happens, there’s going to be someone who is upset,” he said.

The redistricting plan is one of three ballot questions that most Concord residents will get to vote on (residents in the Merrimack Valley School District in the northern part of the city will not vote on ).