By COLE REIF
Great Bend Post
The City of Great Bend will pursue realigning the voting lines within the city to create better representation. For the city purposes, the town is divided into four wards. Each ward has two representatives elected to the council for equal representation.
Councilmember Cory Urban explained to Natalie Towns that
Ward 4 is currently 456 citizens below the average ward population.
"As the city grows and develops and the population moves around, you have to move the lines," said Urban. "Otherwise, you have your ward (Ward 4) as the most underrepresented so there is less people available to run for office and all of that."
With the latest census, Great Bend was stated to have a population of
14,733. To have fair representation, there should be close to 3,683 citizens residing
in each ward. Urban helped realign the voting lines, something that has not been
updated since the mid-1990s.
While those residents absorbed into a new ward
might have a new polling location to vote, none of the current elected
officials will have their seat on the council jeopardized.
"It doesn't affect anyone currently sitting on the council," said Urban. "Even if we did modify it and it was going to affect someone's ward, it would not affect that person until the next election cycle."
The Barton County Commission was notified of the city’s desire to redistrict
the voting wards and the trickledown effect the process will have on the
county. The county commission uses smaller precincts to divide voting districts
into five sections of similar population throughout the entire county. As the
wards get restructured within the city, precincts will likely need to be
shuffled around on the county’s end.
The city will take a look at the realigned voting map and bring a proposal to
the city council at a later date.