Because the population changes and shifts, the state redistricts voting areas every decade.
By Terry Karkos
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA – Thanks to the 2003 apportionment, Maine’s Senate and House districts are changing this year.

These changes will affect the June 8 primary election and Nov. 2 general election.

Apportionment, sometimes called redistricting, is the process of creating voting districts for the purpose of organizing elections, according to the secretary of state.

Because a state’s population can grow, shrink or shift, voting districts are adjusted or redrawn every 10 years in Maine.

As a result of the new apportionment for the 2004 elections, every district for the Maine House of Representatives will have approximately 8,443 people in it. This means every House member will represent 8,443 people.

Every district for the Maine Senate will have approximately 36,426 people in it.

House District 67, currently represented by Rep. Randy Hotham, R-Dixfield, will be changing to District 93. New District 93 includes Dixfield, Mexico and Peru, and the additions of Carthage and Canton.

Roxbury, which was a part of old District 67, is now part of District 92, which includes the towns of Rumford, Andover, Roxbury, Byron, Weld, West Central Franklin Township, Rangeley Plantation, Sandy River Plantation, and Madrid Township.

District 92, which was formerly District 70, is currently represented by Rep. John Patrick, D-Rumford.

House District 65, currently represented by Rep. Arlan Jodrey, R-Bethel, will become District 91. It includes Bethel, Milton Township, Albany Township, Mason Township, Stoneham, Gilead, Hanover, Newry, unorganized North Oxford Township, Upton, Lincoln Plantation, Magalloway Township, the unorganized territory of North Franklin Township, Eustis, the unorganized East Central Franklin Township, Dallas Plantation, and Rangeley.

District 91 newcomers include Kingfield and Woodstock. District 65 towns of Weld and Byron were lost to District 92.

Senate District 24, which is currently represented by Sen. Bruce Bryant, D-Dixfield, will change to District 14. It consists of the towns of Canton, Dixfield, Peru, Hartford, Sumner, Lincoln Plantation, Magalloway Plantation, Upton, Newry, Roxbury, Byron, Andover, Mexico, Rumford, Hanover, Bethel, Gilead, Albany Township, Mason Township, Stoneham, Waterford, Lovell, and Stowe. Newcomers are Jay, Hebron, West Paris, and Sweden.

District 24 lost its towns of Fryeburg, Brownfield, Porter and Hiram, to new District 13 (formerly District 25), which is currently represented by Sen. Richard Bennett, R-Norway, who is in his last term this year as mandated by law. Other District 13 towns include Denmark, Naples, Bridgton, Harrison, Otisfield, Oxford, Paris and Norway, and newcomers Baldwin and Sebago.

Former District 24 Sen. Norman Ferguson Jr. said the apportionment is based on the 2000 Census.

House members negotiated a plan between Republicans and Democrats, but the courts had to decide the district designations and layouts for the Senate, because neither party could agree, Ferguson added.

The new districts were finalized late last year by the Supreme Judicial Court, and are set for the 2004 election cycle, Hotham said.

Once the districts, which include Maine’s U.S. Congressional Districts and County Commissioner Districts, are apportioned, the secretary of state must provide the applicable maps and district boundary descriptions to the municipal clerks so they can revise their voting lists and prepare to conduct elections using the new districts.

To view the new electoral districts for 2004 through 2013, visit the secretary of state Web site at www.maine.gov/sos/cec/elec/apport/apport.htm.

tkarkos@sunjournal.com

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