LAWTON — The Lawton Redistricting Commission is taking a second look at new maps for the city’s eight voting wards.
The commission was originally scheduled to host a Dec. 1 public hearing on a map that was previously recommended for adoption, known as Option 2. That proposal made the fewest changes to the existing map.
But the public hearing was postponed after city staff discovered that a small section of Ward 7 was accidentally included in Ward 2, Kaley Patterson Dorsey, communications and marketing director for the city of Lawton, said in an email. The section is north of Gore Boulevard along Railroad Street and south of Interstate 44, around the Patterson Center.
The mistake resulted from mathematical rounding to balance the number of people in each ward. Dorsey said. She said the error violated a redistricting guideline which says each ward shall be formed of compact, contiguous territory and reflect areas with common interests, ethnic backgrounds and physical boundaries.
The error became known when city staffers were preparing legal descriptions of the new wards, Janet Smith, director of community services and planning, said during the commission’s Dec. 1 meeting.
“Just in one particular area, and it was more of a rounding error than anything that was done purposely,” she said.
The maps were redrawn with corrections and re-presented to the commission during the Dec. 1 meeting.
City Manager Michael Leghorn thanked staffers for catching the error and fixing it.
“It’s not easy often to bring up a mistake,” he said. “We made a mistake. It’s not often easy to say it. But the integrity of the process means that we do exactly that, and they did a good job of that.”
New wards
The city redraws its ward boundaries every 10 years to reflect population shifts while preserving communities with common interests and ethnic backgrounds as much as possible. Officials also try to avoid splitting precincts, although that is not always feasible.
Lawton’s population declined by about 6,600 people over the past decade, leaving a total population of 76,752 in 2020.
The redistricting commission is responsible for approving a new map that divides the population among the city’s eight voting wards, with no more than a 10% spread between the largest and smallest wards – although a higher deviation is permissible if it achieves the goal.
Last month, the commission recommended adopting a new map that made the fewest changes to the existing map and included a 9.18% deviation between the largest and smallest wards. An alternative map, which included a spread of 4.2%, did not attract enough votes to pass.
Now, the commission is considering four options. Those are:
• Option 1, which includes a deviation of 4.2% between the largest and smallest wards.
• An updated version of Option 2, which now includes a spread of 9.43% between the largest and smallest wards.
• Option 3, which includes a 7.4% deviation between the largest and smallest wards.
• Option 4, which includes an 8.9% spread between the largest and smallest wards.
Option 2 leaves 86% of Lawton’s voting wards unchanged, while Option 3 preserves 81% of the wards, Smith said.
“That’s a pretty high percentage,” she said. “Basically, 15 to 20 percent change is all that we’re really having to propose because of our census numbers coming in the way that they’ve come in.”
Commissioner John Purcell said the main problem with Option 3 was that it moved a higher number of voters out of Ward 2 and into Ward 5.
“That caused a flap that we had 10 years ago between Wards 2 and 4,” he said. “We’re trying to avoid that again.”
Because the previous version of Option 2 was flawed, the commission will have to rescind that map and adopt one of the four proposals that were presented on Dec. 1.
The commission will not meet again until after the Lawton City Council names a replacement for Commissioner James Stewart, who represented Ward 7 on the commission but is stepping down for health reasons.
That appointment will likely occur during the council’s Dec. 14 meeting, when someone will be nominated to fill the vacancy, Dorsey said.
“City staff anticipate the next commission meeting to take place Dec. 16 if all members can be present,” she said. “The meeting and agenda will be posted on the city’s website at least 48 hours in advance.”