Williamsburg Speaks Out Against Proposed State Senate District Changes

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Williamsburg Mayor Clyde Haulman is speaking out against the new redistricting plan for state Senate districts, which splits the city for the first time and could cost the city thousands of dollars.

Wednesday afternoon, Haulman wrote a letter asking McDonnell not to split the city. It will arbitrarily divide the city, create an unnecessary expense and will confuse voters, the Mayor said.

The city is small, and therefore is a community of interest, according to Haulman. The Senate plan “entirely discounts Williamsburg’s corporate identity by splitting the city for the sake of political expedience, creating arbitrary and in this case nonsensical political boundaries through the geographic heart” of the city.

Williamsburg is getting ready to change its voting precinct boundaries, and Haulman says this combined with the proposed Senate district changes would result in members of one precinct voting for two different senatorial candidates.

This means the city would need to create a third precinct, which entails buying new voting machines and will set the city back an estimated $16,000 the first year and increase overall operating costs in the future.

“This is an unnecessary expense for the citizens of the City of Williamsburg,” the Mayor said in his letter. “Simply based on population and number of registered voters, a third precinct is not required for a community the size of Williamsburg.”

The split will also confuse citizens, who will have a sense of being a cohesive community in all other areas of state and local government but will have two different Senators in the General Assembly.

Governor McDonnell has a week from when the plan reaches his desk to decide whether to sign, amend or veto it. Follow the process on the Virginia Public Access Project page.