After months of debate, Kent City Council on Wednesday, April 17, approved new ward maps that will be effective with the 2025 primary elections.
The new maps keep Mae Street in Ward 4, and comply with a city charter mandate that all wards be within a 10% population differential.
Voting against accepting the new ward boundaries were council members Heidi Shaffer Bish and Robin Turner. They both championed an earlier but subsequently rescinded ordinance council had passed to let voters have the final say.
If approved, that ordinance would have set a 15% population differential between wards and allowed the city to retain its current ward boundaries. Now, since some voters will find themselves in different wards, they may be confused as to where they are supposed to vote, Shaffer Bish said.
Faith Lyon, director of the Portage County Board of Elections, said the BOE will notify affected voters of their new polling location.
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.