District lines change, precincts unaffected

HAMILTON — Marion County Probate Judge Paige Vick explained what the recent change in the county’s district lines means for voters.
     The Marion County Commission voted last year to redraw district lines within the county to more equally distribute mileage of county roads within each district between commission seats, and that change went into effect last October.
     The decision to redraw district lines was made by the county commission and not by the probate judge’s office, but the probate judge’s office is responsible for overseeing elections in the county. Vick explained the new district lines might effect who voters vote for on the county commission, but will not change their voting precincts.
     Voters will still vote at the same polling location they always have, but the commission seat they vote for might have changed.
      “You’ll still go to the same voting precinct, but you may or may not have the same commissioner who you voted for last time,” Vick said. “You might have been in District 1 your whole life, but now you may go to vote and find you don’t have a choice on the ballot because you’re in a different district (with an uncontested race).”
     Vick added the school board lines have stayed the same, so there will be no changes as far as board of education district lines.
     For this election, only one commission seat race is a contested one: District 1. The race is currently between incumbent Keith Nichols and Jason Taylor.
      The up-to-date maps shown in the photos here show the new district lines, which readers can review to see if their commission district has changed.
     Candidates for county positions like the commission and board of education have until Feb. 26 to complete the final steps of the qualification process before going on the primary ballot, such as filing a statement of economic interest with the state ethics commission, with their party’s county-level organizations.
      The deadline to pay the initial qualification fees and meet other initial requirements to run was back in January.
      Candidates for the state senate, house of representatives and other state and federal offices must qualify through their respective parties at the state and federal levels.
      Each party’s county-level organization qualifies and submits a final list of approved candidates to the probate judge’s office to make it on the ballot for the primary race on May 19.
Vick said candidates are still going through the statement of economic interest process as of last Thursday, Jan. 29, and have until that Feb. 26 deadline to complete that stage of the process ahead of the primary election.

Election information
      At the federal level, elections are for U.S. senator and U.S. house of representatives (7 seats).
At the state level, elections are for governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, state treasurer, state auditor, commissioner of agriculture and industries, state senator, state representative, state board of education (districts 2, 4, 6 and 8), court of criminal appeals judges (place 4 and 5), court of civil appeals judges  (place 4 and 5), circuit court judges (various), district court judges (various) and public service commission (place 1 and 2).
      At the county level, sheriff, circuit judge (one of two positions), revenue commissioner, coroner, all five seats of the county commission and place 1 of the Marion County Board of Education.