Letter from the Chancellor to City Council

Council Members:

I was surprised to learn from a reporter today that the City staff has not moved as Council directed, has delayed the public hearings on the district boundaries, and thereby delayed until after the next election any vote on both the district boundaries and the precinct changes. Isn’t there something that can be done to un-hitch the Liberty University precinct issue from the district boundary issues and proceed forward on the precinct overcrowding issue more quickly?

As I understand it, Council voted on June 14 to accept the electoral board report recommending redistricting council districts and creating a new precinct on Liberty University’s campus. Because of Council’s experience after the last redistricting, Council was understandably concerned about citizens having opportunities to learn of the changes in district boundaries. Council instructed staff to solicit comments from special interest groups (like political parties, voter groups and the NAACP) and to set up three public meetings in September in areas of the City impacted by redrawing district lines (such as the Library, RS Payne and Bedford Hills). The stated time frame for bringing the matter before council for a public hearing and final vote was October, to be followed by submission of the district boundary changes to the Justice Department in November. Obviously the Justice Department needs to approve district boundary changes but need not be consulted on adding a precinct within a district. So meanwhile, the new campus precinct could be used as soon as Council approved it.

I learned today that the public hearings will not be concluded until November 22, after the upcoming election. So the good folks who have always voted at Heritage Elementary are going to be inconvenienced (and probably angered) once again by the presence of busloads of Liberty University students, all trying to vote in an overcrowded and inadequate polling place. The Electoral Board clearly demonstrated how the number of registered voters and actual voters in the Heritage precinct are dramatically beyond any other precinct and seriously outside the target ranges for planning precinct workloads. Everyone agrees it’s been a mess out there for too long.

Fixing that problem need not have been delayed so long. There is no reason the precinct overcrowding issue cannot be addressed before the council takes up redistricting. As soon as the City Council votes on approving the Electoral Board’s recommendation, the registrar can send out new voter cards to the voters with Liberty University addresses and they can vote on campus. Liberty University would be pleased to accept a batch delivery from the registrar at our post office or to pick them all up at once to save the City postage, in fact. I just don’t see why we need to wait another election cycle to do what makes perfect sense when any fair person looks at the numbers.

I would appreciate learning anything you think can be done to separate the two decisions and move more quickly on addressing the precinct overcrowding issue now. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Jerry Falwell, Jr.
President & Chancellor
Liberty University