The City of Jefferson is looking to reduce the number of voting precincts.

The City Council approved at their most recent meeting the first reading to amend an ordinance, which would drop the number of voting precincts from three to two. City Administrator Mike Palmer says the boundary lines between the two precincts is Highway 4 and there would be one voting location at the Greene County Community Center. He explains how the history of making other changes led to the ease of adjusting the precincts this year.

“The City did years ago, maybe unknowingly, is when they eliminated their ward system, so that everything is at-large. That really paves the way to go down to two precincts and make it very easy to identify.”     

The proposal would be a change from what it is currently. There are three precincts, but all council seats are at-large and there was just one voting location at the rec center in the recent city/school board elections.

The precinct changes were based on the U.S. Census data for 2020. The City of Jefferson lost 3.8-percent of its population from the previous census count in 2010 to 4,182 people. There are two more required readings of the ordinance before the proposal can be submitted to the Greene County Auditor’s Office, which then will be sent to the Secretary of State’s Office for final approval.