On Wednesday, January 2nd, 2019 the Goochland County Board of Supervisors will hold a public hearing on a request to amend the Goochland County Code to adjust the boundary line between two election precincts in eastern Goochland.
“The whole purpose in adjusting the boundary is to absorb anticipated population growth in the Centerville precinct without erosion of voter services,” remarked Ryan Mulligan, General Registrar and Director of Elections for Goochland County. “We are proactively trying to prevent long lines from occurring in the upcoming elections while planning for future growth.”
The Goochland County Electoral Board and General Registrar requested that the Goochland County Code be amended to adjust the Centerville (402) and Shallow Well (401) election precinct boundary line to better balance the number of voters in each precinct.
Currently, the Shallow Well precinct (401) has 1,682 voters and the Centerville precinct (402) has 2,843. A significant amount of residential development is anticipated to occur within the Centerville precinct (402) leading to an increase in new voters and a wider gap in the number of voters per precinct.
The proposal is to revise the boundary line between these two precincts to switch 843 voters from the Centerville precinct (402) to the Shallow Well precinct (401) by moving the boundary from aligning with Three Chopt, Broad Street and Shallow Well roads to aligning with Manakin Road. This adjustment is sought in order to rebalance the number of voters in each precinct and to provide for additional capacity in the Centerville precinct (402) for the anticipated new voters.
This amendment to the precinct boundaries, if approved, has to be adopted before February 1, 2019. Due to the upcoming 2020 census, no election boundaries are permitted to be revised, pursuant to state law, between February 1, 2019 and May 15, 2021 when new election boundaries may be adopted based on the 2020 census data.
The Shallow Well Precinct is located at Grace Chinese Baptist Church, 850 Broad Street Road, Manakin-Sabot and the Centerville Precinct is located at St Matthews United Methodist Church, 1706 St. Matthews lane, Richmond. Voters in both precincts will continue to be represented by their same school board representative, member of the board of supervisors, state delegate and senator, and representative to Congress.
Citizens with questions about this proposed change may contact the Registrar’s Office at (804) 556-5803.