A resolution to reduce the complexity of Douglas County’s voter
database was scheduled for consideration Jan. 20 by county
commissioners.
If commissioners passed the measure at their weekly business
meeting, it will adjust commissioners’ district boundaries slightly
to follow state legislative boundaries wherever possible, said
Douglas County Elections Manager John Green.
News-Press deadlines prevented the commissioners’ vote from
being published in this article.
The changes would slightly expand commissioner districts 2 and 3
at several points along their boundaries with district 1.
Green presented commissioners with the resolution Dec. 17,
2003.
“We asked them, ‘Can we have permission to go in and adjust your
boundaries to make things less complex?'” he said.
The boundary adjustments affect 1,512 active voters and 469
inactive voters, Green said.
He said the change was initiated in response to the 2002
reapportionment of Colorado House and Senate districts.
The reapportionment shifted legislative boundaries in Douglas
County, Green said.
The result was that some voting precincts are still in their
original commissioner districts but now share legislative districts
with precincts from other commissioner districts, he
said.
It is legal to have precincts separated in this way, Green said.
But coupling the boundaries as much as possible simplifies the
county’s election administration and simplifies elections for
voters.
“This was clean up for us,” Green said Jan. 16. “If somebody’s
got a compelling reason, we don’t have to do this.
“Districts can stay as they are now,” he said. “It’s not
mandatory.”
The modification to the commissioner districts would be the
first since July 2001, when the latest 10-year census figures
became available, Green and Douglas County Commissioners Jim
Sullivan and Melanie Worley said.
State law requires that commissioner district boundaries be
adjusted so each has the same population after every official
10-year census, they said.
After this population “equalization” forced commissioner
boundaries to change, state lawmakers reapportioned, or reshaped,
their boundaries in 2002, Green said.
Before recommending these recent commissioner boundary changes,
he said the entire county election staff made sure that the
candidacies of the five candidates running for district 2
commissioner in November would not be nullified.
Some controversy exists over the 2001 changes to commissioner
boundaries.
Some residents complained that these changes have now forced
Paul Grenney off the Douglas County Planning Commission.
Grenney admitted this is the case, saying the body’s Jan. 12
meeting was his last.
He was appointed in January 2001, six months before the district
3 boundary shifted north because of high population growth in
Highlands Ranch in the 1990s, Grenney said.
He had lived in district 3 and was appointed by Worley, district
3 commissioner.
After the change he lived in district 2, which is represented on
the county commission by Jim Sullivan.
Sullivan said he would have considered appointing Grenney to the
planning commission to represent district 2, but he had already
made a commitment to appoint a new planning commissioner.
Despite not living in district 3 since July 2001, Grenney
fulfilled his three-year term as its representative, Worley
said.
The planning commission has nine members, with three appointed
by each county commissioner from his or her district.