St. Charles council approves ward map
Legal defensibility took precedence over ease of use Monday night as St. Charles aldermen redrew the boundaries of the wards they represent.
City officials are required to redraw the boundaries after every decennial census. The resulting maps from the redrawing efforts can incite costly legal battles if anyone deems the new map creates unfair representation opportunities for ethnic, racial or other possible voting groups.
The redrawing effort itself can be a source of controversy because the elected officials are put in charge of deciding the specific blocks and homes that will vote either for or against them in the next election. With all that in mind, attorneys told aldermen the most legally defensible map would include a population difference among the city’s five wards of no more than 1 percent.
That concept is what drove Alderman Jim Martin to author several versions of a new ward map. Martin presented the third and final version Monday night. The only reason multiple versions were necessary was because Alderman Dan Stellato expressed an interest a ward map that didn’t result in one side of a neighborhood street being represented by one alderman while the other side of the street was represented by a different alderman.
To accomplish that, Stellato even said he’d be willing to vote in favor of a map with as much as a 10 percent difference in population among the wards. Alderman Maureen Lewis joined him in that point of view.
However, on Monday night, she was the only public officials still beating the drum for ease of use.
“I think we owe it to the citizens of St. Charles to create a map that’s not confusing,” Lewis said. “Otherwise, it does happen that people can get the wrong ballots when they go to vote, and then you disenfranchise a voter.”
But Stellato said he’s come to realize that “there is no perfect map.” And the changes included in the latest version Martin created came far enough along the road of ease of use to win his vote.
Those changes include the entire downtown being placed in one ward (Ward 3) and no voting precinct in the city being split across more than two wards.
Alderman William Turner said there’s really no reason for voters to be confused about who represents them or where to vote.
“It’s on your voter registration where you out and vote,” Turner said. “If anybody is confused, it’s their own fault.”
Lewis voted “present” on recommending the new ward map to the full city council. But when the full council vote came down, Lewis voted along with her fellow aldermen for unanimous passage of the new ward map.