Area towns shuffled, separated under proposed redistricting plan

By Shawn Cunningham
© 2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC

The Vermont House yesterday passed H. 589 to bypass the work done by a tri-partisan board set up to create a legislative redistricting plan. The move substitutes the bill as the design for the “initial district plan.” The text of the legislation says that lawmakers will be looking to the public as well as municipalities to weigh in on their plan and that the initial design is not necessarily the final one.

Every 10 years, the Vermont uses the federal census numbers for its municipalities to reshuffle the electoral districts for members of the State House. On the surface, the goal is to have even representation across the state. But there are also politics.

The Legislative Apportionment Board – made up of members of Vermont’s three largest political parties — is given this task although the legislature can – and has – ignored the board’s recommendation and come up with its own plan.

The legislators’ rationale behind putting together another plan is that the results of the 2020 census were delayed and that put the LAB behind in its work, missing the Aug. 15 deadline for presenting a proposal to the legislature. Normally, the Government Operations Committee of the House – with a district plan in hand – would seek public input about the LAB proposal in the fall and work on it when the legislature reconvened in January.

This time, the LAB asked for the thoughts of each municipality – through each town’s Board of Civil Authority – back in November. Most of this area’s towns were not happy with the original LAB plan, and a final plan was not presented to the legislature until Nov. 30. A town’s board of civil authority consists of the select board, justices of the peace and the town clerk.

The idea was to form single-member districts throughout the state, each with an ideal population of 4,172 residents, which is down from the 2010 number of 4,287.  Once the towns in one legislative district is changed, a problem may be created in a neighboring district.

For example, since 2002 when the districts were reapportioned, the towns of Andover, Baltimore and Chester as well as North Springfield have been represented together in Windsor 3-1. The LAB’s plan would have put Chester with Grafton and Athens while Andover would become part of a district including Weston, Ludlow and Plymouth. Baltimore would join Cavendish and Weathersfield, and North Springfield would become part of one of two districts representing Springfield.

Under the House bill, Chester would be part of a district with Athens, Grafton and Windham while Andover would move in with Weston, Londonderry and Jamaica. See the chart below for details on several area towns as they are today and as they would be under the two plans.

Ironically, at 4,144 residents, the Windsor 3-1 district is currently closer to the ideal population (43 residents under the goal rather than 143 it was under from the 2010 census) and two of those towns’ Boards of Civil Authority balked at the LAB plan when they were asked for comments, as did several other towns. Both Chester and Andover pointed to the historic ties between their towns. Andover’s response said: “Andover students attend school in Chester, most of Andover’s mail comes through the Chester post office, Andover receives its emergency services from Chester, Andover provides financial support to Chester’s public library and the shared family center, and many Andover residents work and own businesses in Chester.”

In establishing representative districts, which shall afford equality of representation, the General Assembly shall seek to maintain geographical compactness and contiguity and to adhere to boundaries of counties and other existing political subdivisions.

Vermont Constitution
Chapter II Article 13

In its response, the Londonderry Board of Civil Authority pointed to both the Vermont Constitution that says that districts “shall seek to maintain geographical compactness and contiguity and to adhere to boundaries of counties and other existing political subdivisions” and to a statute that asks that new districts preserve “existing political subdivision lines” and recognize and maintain “patterns of geography, social interaction, trade, political ties, and common interests.”

More than one Board of Civil Authority pointed out that the proposed districts crossed county lines and stretched out for miles and across mountains. They also recognized that issues like school choice and long-standing arrangements among towns should be taken into account.  Weston proposed that a district made up of Winhall, Londonderry, Peru, Landgrove and Weston made sense because those towns “are contiguous, geographically compact, afford equality of representation and share common services, schools, health care and public services.”

The text of House 589 says that it is the General Assembly’s intent “that the House Committee on Government Operations conduct public hearings, take testimony from boards of civil authority, and request feedback on district lines from cities and towns prior to the General Assembly’s enactment of final district lines.”

No schedule for such hearings appears to have been scheduled and it is unknown whether the committee will hear from the public or officials representing the public. The house bill was sent to the Senate on Tuesday, Jan. 18.

The Legislative District Shuffle, 2022 Version

H. 589, in Column 3, was passed by the Vermont House of Representatives and now goes to the Senate. Towns in bold are regularly covered by The Chester Telegraph.

Current Legislative Districts for Southern Vermont area towns	Districts Proposed by the Legislative Apportionment Board	Districts Proposed under House Bill 589
Andover Baltimore Chester North Springfield	Andover Ludlow Plymouth Weston	Andover Jamaica Londonderry Weston
Athens Brookline Grafton Rockingham Windham Portions of Dummerston Putney Westminster (2 member district)	Athens Chester Grafton	Athens Chester Grafton Windham
Cavendish Weathersfield	Baltimore Cavendish Weathersfield	Baltimore Cavendish Weathersfield
Jamaica Londonderry Weston Winhall Stratton	Dover Jamaica Wardsboro Windham	Dover Somerset Stratton Wardsboro Winhall
	Landgrove Londonderry Peru Somerset Stratton Winhall
Ludlow Mt. Holly Shrewsbury	Mt. Holly Shrewsbury Wallingford	Ludlow Portion of Mt. Holly Shrewsbury
Springfield (2 member district)	Springfield east	Springfield (2 member district)
	Springfield west	Brookline Rockingham Westminster (2 member district)
	Rockingham (minus sliver at Route 121)
	Brookline Rockingham (plus sliver at Route 121) Westminster