The Somerville City Council voted on Nov. 9 to adopt a new ward and precinct map for the city at the recommendation of aninternalcity council working group. The map, developed by the working group in collaboration with the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, shifts the boundaries of the city's seven wards only minimally, while increasing the number of precincts within each ward from three to four in order to accommodate the city's growth. Somerville's population grew from 75,754 to 81,045 in the past decade, a 7% increase.
Somerville's redistricting process was part of a statewide requirement to update precinct and ward maps in accordance with demographic changes following the 2020 Census. Federal regulations state that each ward within a city must have roughly the same population. As a result of its population growth, Somerville's previous ward boundaries did not divide up the city's population equally and needed to be adjusted.
SomerStat is the Somerville Mayor's Office of Innovation and Analytics, which uses data to help make policy decisions for the city. Cortni Desir, SomerStat acting director and leader of the working group, discussed the purpose and goals of the redistricting process.
“You don't want a precinct to have long protruding fingers. It should be an intuitive geography that aligns with the census block boundaries," Desir said.
Ensuring that minority voting blocs remain intact was also a factor when dividing precincts.
“You need to consider that changing precinct lines won't dilute a minority group vote, either by packing or by diluting votes,” Desir said.
Desir and the working group also considered Somerville's predicted future growth when drawing new precinct and ward boundaries.
"We wouldn't want a scenario where we drew the boundaries for a precinct and then one or two years from now, a big development comes in and causes the population in that precinct to then exceed the 5% or exceed the maximum," Desir explained. "So, in the working group, we take into account those things and take into account projected housing growth."
Though the adjustments to Somerville's ward and precinct boundaries are not predicted to impact most voters, a small number will be shifted into a neighboring ward to meet state guidelines. These residents will be represented by a new ward councilor and school committee member.
The working group proposed the addition of new precincts within preexisting ward boundaries in order to minimize the effects on voters. According to Associate Professor of Mathematics Moon Duchin, founder of the MGGG Redistricting lab, voters who are shifted into a new precinct within the same ward will be minimally impacted; they will retain the same local government representatives but move to a new polling location.
"They want to keep the lines nearly the exact same as they are now, with only very small changes to district lines, so instead of rebuilding the districts they are rebuilding the puzzle pieces inside of them," Duchin said.
Duchin explained the difference between redistricting, which is the process of redrawing the boundaries of a ward, and reprecincting.
"Precincts are just geographicalunits that correspond to how election administration is conducted," Duchin said.
Tufts senior Julia Kupferman works for Massachusetts Voter Table, an organization that focuses on building a more fair and representative democracy in Massachusetts by promoting civic participation.Kupfermanarticulated how redistricting in conformity with population changes helps ensure voter equality.
“Redistricting is really based on the principle that every vote is equal: one person, one vote," Kupferman said. "And so the way that we do that is that we need to make sure that all of the districts [have] a relatively close to [an] equal number of people in each district, so that every person's voice is weighted the same.”
Massachusetts Voter Table works to ensure that redistricting and reprecincting are done fairly.
“It just means making sure that people of color are not disenfranchised and really have an equal opportunity to have their voices heard in government,” Kuperman said of the requirements of an equitable redistricting process.
The Somerville reprecincting process has not been seamless. The proposed map went through several changes before the final version was formally proposed at the Nov. 9 city council meeting.
At least one official, Ward 5 Councilor Mark Niedergang, raised concerns during the redistricting process about how the new map would change some citizens' representation in city government. Niedergang was concerned that the new map would shift Ward 5 School Committee Member Laura Pitone's house into Ward 6 and would deny Ward 5 its elected representative. Desir assured him that the presented map was only a draft that would be revised. Niedergang ultimately voted in favor of the final map at the meeting.
According to Desir, the city does not expect any significant social or political changes to emerge as a result of the proposed map. The majority of Somerville residents will retain the same ward councilors and school committee members. The working group's proposal did not affect voting precincts for the Nov. 2021 city elections.
