The
following memorandum discusses the electoral boundary line issue and steps to return
disenfranchised voters to the county in which they live and pay taxes.
A public
hearing on the boundary line agreement has been scheduled for Tuesday, August 6
at 7 p.m. in the Board meeting room at 1800 Sandy Hook Road.
7/15/19
MEMORANDUM TO: John
A. Budesky, County Administrator
FROM: Tara A. McGee,
County Attorney
DATE: July 15, 2019 RE: Goochland/Louisa Boundary Line
Agreement
Virginia Code § 24.2-309.2 prevents localities from
creating, dividing, abolishing, or consolidating, any precincts, or otherwise
changing the boundaries of any precinct between February 1, 2019 and May 15,
2021; however, there is a very valuable exception to this prohibition, allowing
a change as a “result of a court order.” This exception would allow a change in
the election district and precinct boundaries based on a court order obtained
by the two localities going through the process, under Virginia Code §
15.2-3106 through -3108, to change the localities’ boundary line by agreement
with court approval.
Louisa and Goochland Counties have already agreed to a new
boundary line and submitted it to the Census Bureau. The boundary is shown, as
required pursuant to Virginia Code § 15.2-3108, through a GIS map with the
boundary established by Virginia State Plane Coordinates System, North/South
Zone meeting National Geodetic Survey standards. Goochland’s map has 300
separate coordinate points identified along the boundary line between the two
counties.
Today, Goochland County uses the census line as the boundary
between Goochland and Louisa for election district purposes, but using that
line causes problems with voter registration. Pursuant to Virginia Code § 24.2-417,
the Goochland County Registrar is required to register “every resident of his
county” who is qualified to vote. However, in order to be a “qualified voter”
as defined in Virginia Code § 24.2-101, a person must be a resident of the
precinct in which he seeks to vote. The problem with using the census line as
the boundary between Goochland and Louisa is that it places some Goochland
County residents outside of the precinct lines for some Goochland precincts and
some Louisa County residents outside of the precinct lines for some Louisa
precincts.
Election districts and precincts are required to have
“clearly defined and clearly observable boundaries” pursuant to Virginia Code §
24.2-305. “Clearly observable boundaries” is defined in the state law; it generally
refers to roads, streets, highways, rivers, and streams, as well as other
natural or constructed or erected permanent physical features shown on an
official map from VDOT, a US Geological Survey topographic map, or a polygon
boundary on the TIGER/line files of the US Census Bureau.
The Goochland County election districts are described in
Goochland County Code § 2-43 and its precincts are described in Goochland
County Code § 2-64. In both of these ordinances, clearly observable boundaries
are used to describe the demarcations between election districts or precincts,
except that the descriptions also refer to the borders/lines with adjoining
counties (e.g. “thence in an easterly direction along the Louisa County line to
the Henrico County line”). Meg 7/15/19 2 Lamb, the Privileges and Elections
Attorney with the Division of Legislative Services, clarified in a telephone
conversation with me last Friday afternoon that the boundaries between
localities do not have to meet the requirements for a “clearly observable
boundary”; that requirement is for the boundaries that the Board actually
establishes between election districts and precincts, but not for the
locality’s actual boundary with another locality. Accordingly, the new boundary
established by court order will be able to be used for election district and
precincts despite the fact that the localities’ boundary line doesn’t use
“clearly observable” boundaries.
Given the agreement between the two counties as to the
boundary line, a court order approving the new agreed boundary line could be
obtained in time by following the steps below. In the proposed timeline, the
Court has up to three weeks to approve the petitions recognizing the new
boundary in order to have the new boundary approved more than 60 days before
the next general election (as required by Virginia Code § 24.2-306). September
5 is the last date to have the new boundary approved.
Once the boundary line is changed by court order, Virginia
Code § 24.2-309.2 requires that the localities send copies of the change to the
State Board of Elections and the Division of Legislative Services. Because its
ordinance includes an electoral map, Goochland County would also need to adopt
the new map as part of its ordinance.
The adoption of the
current parcel boundary map which has been submitted to the Census Bureau does
not address the approximately 10 parcels which are located on the “wrong” side
of the boundary (i.e. parcels paying Goochland taxes, but which are located on
the Louisa side of this boundary line and vice versa), but those parcels can be
addressed in the future. Once the counties have had the opportunity to reach
out to those property owners and advise them of the proposed change, a new map
can be prepared, new petitions filed, and a new boundary approved by the Court.
That new map will be submitted to the Census Bureau and it is my understanding
that they will update maps based on locality boundary line adjustments even
between the times of the decennial census.
Procedure for Boundary Line Agreement (BLA) Change
under Va. Code §§ 15.2-3106 et seq.
1. Reach agreement
with Louisa to cooperate in BLA; circulate BLA between the two localities for
preliminary approval a. Complete by July 19
2. Advertise
intention to approve BLA by publishing descriptive summary in local papers for
2 successive weeks. Unlike for zoning public hearings, the second ad does not
have to run at least 5 days before the public hearing. a. Goochland -- July 15
deadline to place advertisement in Goochland Gazette for July 18 and July 25
[July 23 deadline to advertise for July 25 and Aug. 1] b. Louisa – same
advertising deadlines and publication dates
3. Hold Public Hearing on BLA; adopt BLA
a. Aug. 6 Goochland
b. August 5 Louisa
4. Serve notice of BLA by first class mail to affected
property owners. If the owners of at least one third of the affected parcels
object to the change, they can intervene in the subsequent court proceeding. a.
Send notices by Aug. 9
5. Each locality petitions the circuit court for one of the
affected localities to approve the BLA; include facts pertaining to the desire
to change or relocate the boundary line and attach GIS map depicting the change
in the boundaries of the localities with coordinates
a. Goochland County Attorney will
prepare petition
b. Louisa County can “duplicate” Goochland’s
petition
c. File petitions in Goochland Circuit Court
by Aug. 12
6. Judge enter court order
a. 2 weeks from filing date is Aug.
26
b. 3 weeks from filing date is Sep.
3
c. Per 24.2-306(A), no changes can
be made to boundary after Sep. 6 (60 days prior to election on Nov. 5)
7. Registrars reassign voters based on BLA
8. Localities send notices to affected voters
a. Notice must be mailed by Oct.
15 (at least 15 days prior to election per 24.2- 306(B))
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