The Putnam County Redistricting Committee began the work of redistricting Monday night with an organizational session.
To lead the redistricting work, the committee elected Bob Duncan as their new chair and AJ Donadio as vice-chair. Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said the committee will be able to begin redistricting once the county receives its final census numbers on August 16th
County Government Consultant Ben Rodgers said that as the committee begins work, the biggest undertaking will be with District 6, the Cane Creek area.
“The whole goal of redistricting is getting under that 10 percent overall deviation of population,” Rodgers said. “So District 6 is already at 10 percent, so there’s about to be some changes in that area. There’s going to be some census blocks moved.”
Rodgers said the goal is to get the difference close to zero percent to make districts as even as possible in their population sizes. He said a larger deviation means certain areas have skewed growth.
“So more people have moved into that area and they’re not moving into other areas in the county,” Rodgers said. “So we’ve really got two districts that have seen an influx of people.”
Rodgers said the other district is District 11, the Bangham and Cookeville High School area.
The committee will be trained on software later this month. The committee will also consider any voting precincts that need moving. Election Commission Administrator Michele Honeycutt said that there are necessary adjustments for several locations to facilitate elections for the county.
The committee will meet again on Monday, August 27th at 5:30 p.m.
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