Some Lewiston voters got a new senator when the changes took effect.
When new legislative district lines took effect Jan. 1, Lewiston lost a state senator to Auburn.
Former Senate District 22, held by Sen. Neria Douglass, included part of Lewiston. Those voters now will be represented by Sen. Peggy Rotundo, whose district now includes all of Lewiston.
The state is required to redraw voting districts every 10 years to reflect population changes and trends based on the most recent federal census. According to the new district apportionment plan, every district in the Maine House of Representatives will have close to 8,443 residents. Every Senate district will have 36,426 residents.
City clerks began receiving the redistricting information on Dec. 29. Auburn City Clerk Mary Lou Magno said she had finished translating the changes into the city voter rolls last week. A new district map, based on the city’s GIS system, is available on the city’s Web site.
“It’s not a huge a number of people that are affected, just enough to make things confusing,” Magno said.
New numbers
The names of legislative districts in both cities also changed. Auburn residents who voted in house districts 72, 73 and 74 will vote in districts 68, 69 and 70. Auburn’s former Senate District 22, held by Douglass, is now District 15.
“As far as the number changes are concerned, it’s pretty straight-forward,” Magno said. “If you voted in 72, you vote in 68 now.”
But the state also redrew district lines subtly within the city, and those changes affect 3,162 Auburn voters.
“In some cases, whole streets were moved into different districts,” Magno said.
In Lewiston, house districts 70, 71, 72, 73 and 74 became districts 86, 87, 88, 89 and 90. Senate district 21 – Rotundo’s – became District 16.
Lewiston City Clerk Kathy Montejo said she hadn’t translated the reapportionment plan into the city voter rolls and doesn’t know how many Lewiston voters were affected.
“We need to tackle this in the next few weeks,” Montejo said. “We have the June primaries coming up, and we need to have the voting list updated before nomination papers start going out. So, we know we need to get this done.”
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