Ahead of the November general election, Toledo City Council may redraw voting wards because of population decline.

According to the Lucas County Board of Elections, Toledo is split into 24 wards, which are further divided into precincts. The new proposed map by the Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commission would reduce the number of wards to 16.

City Council President Carrie Hartman said the new map won’t change council district lines or polling locations, but LaVera Scott, director of the county elections board, said her team will be tasked with rearranging the precinct lines to fit within 16 wards.

“Right now, they may live in 22A, but that might change to whatever the corresponding number will be,” Ms. Hartman said. “It will still be A, B, C, but the number of the ward will change.”

According to the city’s charter, council is required after each federal census to redraw the wards based on the city’s population. Each ward needs to have between 10,000 and 20,000 residents. Though the last census was conducted in 2020, Ms. Hartman, who elected council president in January, said the wards were never redone.

Toledo has been divided into 24 wards since 1991, after the 1990 census. The 2020 federal census reported 62,000 fewer residents in Toledo than in 1990.

Tom Gibbons, director of the plan commission, said only a few modifications were made to the wards at the end of the 2010 census, but because of population decline, the committee decided to redraw the wards to prevent doing more work in 10 years.

“What we did is look at population and try to make the wards similar, so we knocked it down to 16,” Mr. Gibbons said. “What we’re trying to prevent is having to go through this every 10 years, and hopefully, nobody has to touch it for 20 to 30 years.”

Ms. Hartman joined Mr. Gibbons, Ryne Sundvold, a senior planner with the plan commission, and Dale Emch, city law director, to redraw the wards at the request of the elections board. However, to finalize the new map, it must be approved by council. Mr. Sundvold spearheaded the design of the new map and drew up three different versions before landing on the final copy that will be presented to council Wednesday.

“We focused on the regions where populations either declined over the years and stagnated or areas that were growing in Toledo,” Mr. Sundvold said. “It was really just adjusting those areas so they were either consolidated or the population would be equal to those areas that were growing.”

Mr. Sundvold said North Toledo, East Toledo, and the Old South End were significantly consolidated, while West Toledo has seen considerable population growth and needed to be divided.

Ms. Scott said she met with the team to review the map and asked for the current numbering of wards to be similar to the new version to avoid more confusion.

“We asked them to make it less intrusive,” Ms. Scott said. “We wanted the map to minimize impact on the voters.”

According to the map proposed to council, the biggest changes include South Toledo’s Wards 17 and 18, separated by the Maumee River, which would become Ward 2. West Toledo’s Ward 23 would become Ward 10, and Ward 22 would become Ward 12. East Toledo’s Wards 19 and 20 would become Ward 14.

Ms. Hartman said she isn’t worried about council passing the new map but is concerned about how close it is to the November election.

“If we can’t agree on it, … then I think it would be smart of us to hold this legislation in committee and not touch it until after this upcoming election because we’re getting a little bit close to that on timing,” Ms. Hartman said.

Ms. Scott asked council to complete the new map before July so her team has enough time to send out notification cards to those living in the changed wards. Ohio law requires notification of any changed precinct or polling location to be sent out to registered voters no later than 45 days after making the change.

She said she estimates between 75,000 and 120,000 people will be affected by the changes but is unsure how much it will cost. Even though the changes will be made ahead of the November election, she said she doesn't think it will have any impact on the results.

“I’m not concerned because we’re not changing the polling locations,” Ms. Scott said. “In my experience, most people know where their polling locations are, but they are not aware of the wards or precincts.”

First Published June 11, 2024, 5:05 p.m.