MORGANTOWN — The Morgantown Ward and Boundary Commission is finalizing proposed changes to the city’s wards that would dramatically decrease the deviation in both population and the number of registered voters in the city’s seven wards.
A sliding map showing the current and proposed ward boundaries is available on the city’s website, morgantownwv.gov under “quick links,” though it should be noted that minor adjustments may still be made before the map is presented to city council, likely during the Sept. 29 committee of the whole meeting.
City GIS Analyst Marvin Davis said the biggest boundary changes occurred in the 1st, 2nd and 6th wards.
“The most notable change from the existing wards to the proposed wards now would be in the second ward going into downtown and the downtown WVU campus,” Davis said. “Sixth Ward and 1st Ward also had some changes in that area that were meant to, one, provide more of a physical boundary between the wards but also help balance registered voters and population in those areas.”
Davis explained that the commission attempted to equalize the wards as closely as possible using both population and registered voters.
Sarah Barnes, chairperson of the ward & boundary commission, said the body also went to great lengths, and considered public feedback, in an attempt to avoid dividing neighborhoods.
“I think we were able to keep the neighborhoods intact as much as possible given the task of equalizing the wards,” Barnes said. “One thing that residents do need to remember is that the political boundary doesn’t change the neighborhood and everyone in the city votes for every seat on city council. This is just a way for the city to determine who can run for office to represent each ward.”
Because some areas of the city have high concentrations of voters compared to relatively low population, and vice versa, the commission attempted to lower population variance as much as possible while focusing mainly on equalizing the number of registered voters in each ward to within 10% deviation.
“Since the registered voters would dictate who was eligible to run for council, it made sense to use that as the priority while working to equalize the number as much as possible on the population side as well,” Barnes said.
Based off the mean — in which every ward had the same number of registered voters — the current map proposal would bring voter deviation in the wards from:
Ward 1: -10.8% to -0.4%
Ward 2: -3.8% to -0.6%
Ward 3: +20% to -2.1%
Ward 4: +10.2% to -3.2%
Ward 5: +0.9% to +1.6%
Ward 6: -14.1% to +6.6%
Ward 7: -2.3% to -1.9%
Looking at population, the proposed map would reduce deviation from:
Ward 1: -33.7% to -27.6%
Ward 2: -32.8% to -7.3%
Ward 3: +47.1% to +26.3%
Ward 4: +48.9% to +8.6%
Ward 5: +48.7% to +22.9%
Ward 6: -40.1% to -21.7%
Ward 7: -38.0% to -1.1%
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