Salem Town Moderator Chris Goodnow and Assistant Moderator Bernie Campbell recently addressed the Town Council to inform them of plans to carry out a voter redistricting process. The plans would reduce the number of polling stations from 5 to 4 and take advantage of the newly remodeled Woodbury School as a new voting station. The goal is to rebalance the districts in Salem, particularly in the current District 4 (Senior Center) and District 2 (Soule School) where the number of voters stresses the capacity of each building. This rebalancing would also ease staffing concerns at the numerous polling sites and better position the Town to absorb future growth.

Locally, voting districts apply solely to where a person votes and there are no positions in Town that are ward-specific. Any change to districts ultimately requires a vote at Town Meeting. If a redistricting plan is approved at 2025 Town Meeting, the changes would not take effect until the 2026 Town Meeting election. For the remaining 2024 and 2025 elections, the current districting will remain as is.

As the plan progresses, more public outreach will take place. Stay tuned for updates as Town Meeting gets closer!

A video of the presentation and discussion is available here. Assistant Moderator Bernie Campbell provides a thorough review of the current facilities, the proposed changes, and the impacts and process involved. He also explains why the Salem High School is not used and summarizes the parking, access, and logistical issues that make it unsuitable for voting purposes.

Click here or the image below to view the entire PowerPoint presentation!