LEWISTON – City wards will change for hundreds of Lewiston voters before November’s election, councilors agreed Tuesday night.

Voters should expect to get postcards in October notifying them of the changes, according to Deputy City Clerk Kelly Mercier.

“We don’t want to send them too early and have people throw them out and forget about them,” Mercier said. “We want them to put them right up on their refrigerator.”

But Councilor Renee Bernier said the city was being too hasty accepting the new ward boundaries, and some residents criticized councilors for not giving the public a chance to review the changes.

“I think this was an injustice,” said Paul Brunetti of 6 Bradford St. “This was just passed out and we didn’t have an opportunity to see it before now.”

Councilors discussed the changes for the first time publicly last week, and handed out copies of the new map at Tuesday’s meeting.

“I don’t have a problem with the new map,” Councilor Bernier said. “I do have a problem with the way it was done. I just feel that if it’s not crucial, we should wait, hold off until after the election.”

The city is required to redraw ward boundaries to better balance population. Mercier said the city has until the end of the year to accept the changes.

The state redrew the boundaries for state House districts before last June’s primary and those districts no longer match the city’s wards. That meant confusion for voters and volunteer voting judges and the possibility of mistakes.

New ward boundaries would match Maine House districts almost exactly, while balancing the population in each ward at about 5,098 people.

The plan moves Ward 6 – downtown voters – into Wards 1, 3, 5 and 7. That would allow those voters to go to the polls much closer to their homes. To balance it out, Ward 6 would extend beyond its northwest boundary, taking over much of the outer areas of wards 4 and 7.

By contrast, wards 4 and 7 would lose all outlying voters. Both become concentrated in the central part of the city. Ward 1 would shrink along its eastern boundary and extend downtown.

The new map also confirms polling-place changes the city made two years ago. Voters in wards 1 and 3 go to the Lewiston Armory on Center Street. Ward 2 voters go to Montello School; Ward 4 voters to Hillview Community Center and Ward 6 voters to the Elks Lodge on Lisbon Street. Wards 5 and 7 voters go to the Multi-Purpose Center.