Selectmen Discuss Excluding Cedar Junction Population from Precinct 5, Redrawing Precinct Lines

At their meeting Thursday night, the Walpole Board of Selectmen heard a recommendation by Town Clerk Ron Fucile that could lead to precincts in town being redrawn or see Precinct 5 receive fewer Town Meeting Representatives in the future.

According to Fucile, the town currently includes the population of the inmates at MCI-Cedar Junction towards the representative population in Precinct 5.

Because the 690 inmates in the prison cannot vote, but are still counted towards the representative population in Precinct 5, Precinct 5 receives more Town Meeting Representatives than they should, Fucile said.

“My recommendation is not to skew the numbers that would allow Precinct 5 to have such a large contingent,” he said.

Fucile's recommendation would make Precinct 5 the smallest in the town.

Selectman Chris Timson, who lives in Precinct 5, said that is the reason why he would be against such a measure.

“I would suggest that we don’t make Precinct 5 have the smallest amount of representatives because a portion of their population can’t vote. I think that would be kind of penalizing Precinct 5,” Timson said.

“I am from Precinct 5 so I would not be pleased to see Precinct 5 be dropped down to the lowest number of Town Meeting member representatives of any precinct,” he said.

Other members of the board believed that the prison numbers should not be counted but did not have a consensus as to how the situation should be handled going forward.

“Precincts 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 and 8, they’re getting shortchanged," selectman Nancy Mackenzie said. "They’re not getting enough representation for their population of voters because there are 690 people that are incarcerated that have committed a felony that are not part of our community, not part of our contributing top and myself living in a different precinct, I’m feeling gypped.”

Selectman Eric Kraus asked, “By leaving it the way it is aren’t you actually giving Precinct 5 more of a voting voice than any of the other precincts because they have fewer people represented?"

Timson argued that it would take away TMR's from Precinct 5 and would make "a disproportionate type of scenario."

Kraus agreed with Timson in that "there should be equal representation at Town Meeting by each of the precincts in this town” and recommended that they consider redrawing precinct lines.

Selectmen Michael Berry said that redrawing the lines to ensure Precinct 5 has equal representation is not the way their system should work.

“It’s done as an apportionment, just as Congressional districts are. Sometimes it’s fair, sometimes it’s not,” Berry said. “The sentiment is well taken, that we want to have equal representation but under an apportioned system like this that’s simply not the way it works out. The larger precincts have great representation, the smaller precincts have smaller representation.”

“If we redrew the lines I think there would be a lot of people not happy with having their precinct changed. And representatives that could be taken out of their precinct,” Mackenzie said.

Said Fucile: “I still feel that the recommendation is finally addressing a shortcoming that we have and that shortcoming is Precinct 5 is the smallest precinct. There’s no question about it.”

Having heard the issue for the first time the board decided to table the discussion for a future meeting.

“It is something that’s going to impact current RTM’s. It’s something that’s going to impact each of the communities and speaking for myself I’d like to think this one through a little longer,” Kraus said.

The board requested that Fucile find out how other towns in the state that have prisons and representative governments deal with their prison populations.