Politics & Government
State's Redistricting May Affect Bloomfield
Belleville, Montclair and Bloomfield are among seven municipalities with wards that may be redrawn after the release of the 2010 Census
When the 2010 Census figures for New Jersey were released, it triggered a process which will see all 40 legislative districts redrawn, according to the state legislature website.
But the census numbers will also kickstart the redo of municipal ward boundaries, which are done every 10 years, county officials said.
For Essex County, towns that will be affected are Bloomfield, Belleville, Montclair, Irvington, East Orange, Orange, and Newark, said Linda von Nessi, clerk of the Essex County Board of Elections.
The process itself doesn't start until Gov. Chris Christie "promulgates" the census data, meaning he sends the official census information to Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, who also serves as secretary of the state, von Nessi said.
As of Thursday, those census figures have not been handed off, von Nessi said. The effort to redraw the wards doesn't happen until that is done, she said.
"Our clock doesn't start clicking," von Nessi said.
When promulgation does occur, the Essex County officials in charge of the wards being redrawn have three months to have their first meeting, von Nessi said. After the first meeting, they have 30 days to adjust the boundaries of the map for the municipalities affected.
The commission of officials heading the effort will include the municipal clerk drawn from each town and members of the Essex County Board of Elections, which consist of two Republicans and two Democrats, von Nessi said. Beth O'Toole and Michael Carson are the designated Republicans and Fran Adubato and Lee Fisher are the Democrats.
Linda von Nessi said she anticipates serving as secretary for the commission as she has done previously.
For the process, the only wards that would be redrawn would be ones that have a population deviation of more than 10 percent between wards, she said.
"The law requires that wards be formed of compact and contiguous territory," read a report by Ernest Reock, a Rutgers University professor, who published a 2008 paper on state redistricting efforts.
If a political deadlock occurs in the midst of the haggling over ward boundaries, the municipal clerk would be the tie breaking vote, Reock wrote in his paper.
