LAWTON – Armed with a new set of census numbers, the Lawton Redistricting Commission is tackling the task of redrawing ward boundaries.
The commission met on Monday to discuss the redistricting process and the 2020 census numbers, which will provide the basis for adjusting the boundaries of the city’s eight wards.
Lawton’s overall population has dropped in the last decade, according to information from City Hall. However, the population on the east and west sides has grown during the same period. The commission will take both facts into account when drawing new wards.
Each ward must have roughly the same number of people, according to the city charter. The wards should be made up of compact, contiguous territory, and they should reflect communities with common interests and ethnic backgrounds as much as possible.
Officials are trying to preserve the demographics of each ward, said Deputy City Manager Richard Rogalski.
“You want the wards to reflect the demographics of your community,” he said. “But you also don’t want to change a ward that had certain demographics historically – you don’t want to change that. So more or less, you just want to keep them the same.”
City officials want to ensure the population in each ward is reasonably close to equal, with a spread of no more than 10% between the lowest-populated ward and the ward with the most people.
Fort Sill and the Lawton Correction Facility are excluded from redistricting for different reasons. Fort Sill is omitted because active-duty soldiers vote in their state of legal residence, and the prison is excluded because inmates do not have the right to vote.
During the last redistricting effort, the city expanded Ward 2 east of Interstate 44 to make sure the number of people in each ward was close to equal, Rogalski said. He added that the ward may grow again this year.
“Ward 2 again is one of the lower population centers, so it may have to take on a little more population,” he said.
City staff will present some options to the commission to consider at its next meeting, set for 9 a.m. November 3 in the third-floor meeting room at City Hall.
Once the commission has decided which option it prefers, it will host a public hearing at least 10 days before the Lawton City Council considers a resolution outlining the new ward boundaries.