CALHOUN WILL RE-DRAW COUNTY VOTER DISTRICTS - County Required To Equalize Voting Districts

(09/13/2011)
Chief election official County County Clerk Mike Ritchie says county voters who have complained by being shifted from their former voter districts could get some help soon.

Ritchie and the Calhoun Commission will be reviewing the district lines and attempting to make some changes where voters got their polling places changed, causing them to drive extra miles from Millstone and Orma.

The county is required under law to equalize the number of people in each voting district, which means that some voters will get shifted.

Acting Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin has signed legislation that distributes the House's 100 seats among 67 delegate districts.

Advocates of 100 single-seat districts have opposed the plan. Democrat Thornton Cooper has already advised state officials that he will bring a lawsuit and GOP officials and lawmakers are also weighing legal challenges.

Gerrymandering in West Virginia has long been a contentious political issue, done without county or public input, often created senatorial and delegate districts that are are geographically disconnected from voters.