The Lake County Board of Elections met in special session to take a look at all 350 precincts and determine to consolidate or split them.
The meeting, held on Wednesday, lasted for close to four hours as board members voted on precinct information provided by Michelle Fajman, election board director and Jessica Messler, assistant director.
Board president Kevin Smith said re-precincting is something that has to be done by each county every four years.
“It’s a statutory obligation to review and recommend to the secretary of state,” Smith said.
The special meeting was held because the deadline to send information to the secretary of state is (Friday) Aug. 1.
The board at the July 15 meeting directed Fajman, a Democrat, and Messler, a Republican, to review and make recommendations to the board.
Both Fajman and Messler came to the meeting on Wednesday with separate lists of suggestions about the best way to either consolidate or split precincts.
Smith said state law advocates that if the precinct has under 600 active voters it should be consolidated with another precinct, but if it has more than 2,000 active voters, then it can be split or divided into two precincts.
There are exceptions to the rule including the precincts can’t cross congressional, senate, house or township lines, Fajman said.
Lake County Republican Chairman Randy Niemeyer, who spoke briefly at the beginning of the meeting, said the goal is to keep elections efficient, accessible and at a low cost to voters.
Niemeyer said keeping costs down was one of his main objectives because most of the election funds are derived from property taxes which will be reduced by some $30 million by 2028.
He said by consolidating the precincts with under 600 active voters it can reduce costs and result in a savings.
The reductions, over a 10-year period, can mean a savings of around $700,000 to consolidate precincts.
Niemeyer called the lengthy process of going through the various precincts “the ultimate in transparency,” since the board voted along party lines to either approve or deny the precinct proposal changes.
The information compiled will be sent to the secretary of state who will have the final say, Niemeyer said.
“At the end of the day, the secretary of state will make the final call. The process (at the board meeting on Wednesday) was vetting it and sending proposals to the state so they have all the facts,” Niemeyer said.
Secretary of State Diego Morales gave a deadline of Aug. 1 for counties to provide information, Fajman said.
“He will make his consolidation decisions by Sept.1,” she said.
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Once final maps of the precincts are finalized, a legal ad will be posted in area newspapers.
“There will be a legal ad, then we will notify voters,” she said.
In other business, the board approved a request from Lake Central School Corp. officials to hold a school referendum in the fall election.
The school board voted during a special meeting on June 30 to place the school funding question on the ballot in a special election on Nov. 4.
The referendum, first approved with over 53% support in 2018, is set to expire at the end of next year.
Deborah Laverty is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.