The City of Lander is considering redistricting its municipal ward boundaries this year in preparation for the 2024 election cycle.
Assistant mayor RaJean Strube Fossen presented the staff’s proposed redistricting plan during a Lander City Council meeting this week.
“By ordinance we have three wards,” Strube Fossen explained. “Ward 1 here is shown in pink and red … Ward 2 is shown in light blue and dark blue, and Ward 3 is shown in light green and dark green. … That’s what we propose.”
Population parity
The resident population in each Ward must be within 6 percent of “equality,” Strube Fossen noted – a benchmark the city’s current boundary map does not meet.
“Right now, we are woefully inadequate in Ward 2,” Strube Fossen said. “We are not within our 6 percent. … The existing one that we have on the books isn’t even close. We’re not even within 10 percent.”
The staff’s proposed map “is definitely within the 6 percent,” Strube Fossen said, “and it also accounts for growth within the three subdivisions that we’ve already approved that have empty lots.”
Election 2024
Strube Fossen encouraged the council to review the maps over the coming weeks “to find out where your lines have changed – because there will be people that voted for you (who) are no longer in your district, and there will be people that didn’t vote for you that are now in your district.”
Three council members are up for election next year, she noted, so it will be “important” to “give everybody plenty of time to be educated” about any changes to the ward boundaries “so that when they vote in 2024 they will have the correct precinct and ward on their house address.”
The council will have time to discuss the city’s redistricting plan during future work sessions, she said; after that, any proposed changes to the ward map would be outlined in an ordinance that would be subject to a public hearing and three separate council votes.
For more information call the City of Lander at 332-2870.