More than 500 citizens of Morgan County will be voting at new polling places come election time next year.
The state handed Morgan County Commissions new House of Delegates lines and the Commissioners last week had to slice and dice existing precincts to fit the new House of Delegates maps.
Last week, the County Commissioners met at the Morgan County Courthouse in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia to discuss the new proposed maps.
Under the old precinct maps, if you lived across the street from Cacapon Street Park on the east side of US 522, you could walk across the highway to vote in the park at one of the cabins.
But now, under a new proposed precinct map, you will have drive five miles north to the Love Assembly of God to vote.
If you live on Shirley Drive on the east side of US 522, you could drive one mile south to the Love Assembly of God to vote. Now you will have to drive six miles south to Cacapon State Park to vote.
And for a few people, if you live on Powerhouse Road in Great Cacapon, you would drive two miles to vote at Great Cacapon Elementary School. Now you will have to drive seven miles over the mountain to vote at Berkeley Springs High School.
Instead of keeping Morgan County whole, as it could have, the state legislature sliced and diced Morgan County into two House of Delegates seats, leaving the Morgan County Commission with an unenviable task of fitting the precinct maps into the new House of Delegates maps.
Three precincts will be affected – the old 25 (Cacapon State Park), 24 (Love Assembly of God) and 6 (Berkeley Springs High School). The new 25 is now exclusively on the west side of 522. The new Precinct 21 (Love Assembly of God) is on the east side of 522 and goes all the way to the Virginia border. The new Precinct 6 (Berkeley Springs High School) slips over the mountain and includes parts of Great Cacapon.
Affected residents will be notified by mail where their new voting places will be.
The Commission also discussed creating new magisterial districts, including adding the new Precincts 25 and 4 to create the Central magisterial district and adding Precinct 21 and Precinct 24 to creating a new South magisterial district.
The Commission has to finalize the new maps and send them to the state by the end of the year.