By: centraljersey.com
Stephanie Vaccaro
Staff Writer
MONTGOMERY – Increases in population have many effects, one of which is the need to redraw district lines in municipalities.
Montgomery Township experienced a 27.3 percent increase in population from 2000 to 2010, rising from 17,481 to 22,254. The substantial rise in population is driving the redistricting.
"With the adjustments we made, we had an additional three districts, so we went from 16 to 19 districts," said Donna Kukla, clerk for Montgomery Township. "A couple of the other districts have been changed somewhat in order to reduce the numbers in those districts."
"There are only certain years you can do a redistricting," said Ms.Kukla.
If there are more than 1,000 voters in a district in a year when the Census is conducted, those districts will likely be split, said Ms.Kukla. For Montgomery, it has no bearing on the election of theTownship Committee, because it is elected by all of Montgomery,instead of having representatives from each district.
But the impact it does have is in terms of the number ofvoters at particular polling stations.
"The only thing that it reallyaffects is the population in each district to make sure that we’re notoverwhelmed in certain polling locations," said Ms. Kukla. "Itprevents overcrowding at the polls."
Additionally, district lines can be altered because certain areasbecome under-populated over time, but this is not the case forMontgomery this year, Ms. Kukla explained. Many towns in SomersetCounty had well under the number, so they combined districts, said Ms.Kukla. "
We’ve added so many voters that we had to split them," said Ms. Kukla.There were minor adjustments in some areas because of majoradjustments in others, she said.
"I had four districts in the township that were well over 1,000," saidMs. Kukla. "We made some changes in 1 and 13."
District 1 had more than 1,000 and some were put into district 13.
For instance, in the general election last year Pike Run had more than1,500 voters, so that district was split into two, said Ms. Kukla.
Cherry Valley Country Club, district 16, was split and some werepulled from neighboring districts.
"We had to redraw the boundaries abit, change a bit of the neighborhoods," said Ms. Kukla.

