Redistricting, school construction bring changes to precincts

ROCHESTER HILLS — Voters will notice some changes when they head to the polls Aug. 2.

The Rochester Hills City Council approved reapportionment and redistricting plans establishing new council district lines, precinct boundaries and polling locations, based on final 2020 census data March 7.

Rochester Hills City Clerk Leanne Scott said the council is charged with redrawing boundaries based on population after each federal census, as data is available.

“You cannot have more than 2,999 registered voters in a precinct, so we had to keep within those numbers,” Scott said.

Because the redistricting is good for 10 years, officials also had to anticipate the potential population growth throughout the city.

“We have senior facilities going in and we have a large apartment complex over on Hamlin and Adams, where there is going to be hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of potential voters in there, so you have to leave enough room for those potential voters too,” Scott explained.

Scott said changes have been made to City Council districts, as well as precinct boundaries and polling locations. An updated precinct map can be found at rochesterhills.org/Elections/PrecinctMap.pdf.

“It did not change all of our precincts, but it did change some of the lines of our precincts, and all of the precinct numbers changed. It was quite a large undertaking and a lot of changes,” Scott explained. “We have redrawn the council districts, and then, within those districts, even the precincts. Some of our precincts have remained intact, like they were before, but they may have a new number. It’s just cleaning everything up.”

The process allowed the city to eliminate all of its split precincts — when two different congressional districts or two different school districts are located in one precinct. It also allowed the city to designate six precincts for the Avondale Schools district. In the past, Scott said, the city only had three.

Council member Dale Hetrick said that from his perspective, three important changes were made.

“The first was the renumbering — to go from northwest to southeast makes it a lot easier for understanding how those districts are put together. The second thing was creating district three, which has all of the Avondale School district precincts, which will make it easier for Dr. (Susan) Bowyer and her (successors) in district three to actually work with that district and those precincts related to the school,” he said.

The third, according to Hetrick, has been the communication from the Clerk’s Office to residents.

“We hit residents multiple times, with multiple types of communication, so that by the time they are ready to vote, this will be as easy as it can possibly be,” he said.

Whenever a precinct relocation change is required, Scott said, notice is sent to all affected voter households prior to elections. Voters should have already received a new voter information card in the mail containing all of the pertinent changes.

Due to construction planned by the Rochester Community Schools district, several precincts will be temporarily relocated for the Aug. 2 primary election only.

Of Rochester Hills’ 32 precincts, Scott said eight have to be temporarily relocated for the Aug. 2 election.

“The ones that are temporarily relocated are only temporarily relocated for the August election, and that is due to construction taking place at schools. For November, they will be back in the permanent locations, which are on their voter information card that they also have received,” Scott said.

For Aug. 2, Precinct 2 is temporarily relocated from Adams High School to Van Hoosen Middle School, 1339 N. Adams Road. Precinct 3 relocated from Adams High School to West Middle School, 500 Old Perch Road. Precinct 6 moved from Meadow Brook Elementary School to University Hills Elementary, 600 Croydon Road. Precinct 9 relocated from Long Meadow Elementary to North Hill Elementary, 1385 Mahaffy Ave. Precinct 12 went from Adams High School to Brewster Elementary School, 1535 Brewster Road. Precinct 13 went from Long Meadow Elementary School to Hart Middle School, 6500 Sheldon Road. Precinct 16 relocated from Hamlin Elementary to Rochester Hills’ Department of Public Services, 511 E. Auburn Road. Precinct 19 moved from Hamlin Elementary to Rochester Hills’ Department of Public Services, 511 E. Auburn.

The Rochester Hills Clerk’s Office mailed out applications for the Aug. 2 Primary Election to those who have requested to be on Rochester Hills’ Permanent Absent Voter Application List the first week of June.

The new permanent — and temporary — precinct locations were communicated with residents via mail, published in the Hills Herald and are also available on the city’s website. Voters can visit www.Michigan.gov/vote to further locate their precinct and polling location.

For more information on the Rochester Hills precinct changes, contact the Rochester Hills City Clerk’s Office at (248) 656-4630, email clerksoffice@rochesterhills.org or visit www.rochesterhills.org/elections. Michigan voter information is also available at michigan.gov/vote.