Credit John J. Watkins / The Times
CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) — Election officials in northwestern Indiana's Lake County have approved a state-mandated consolidation of the county's small voting precincts.
Lake County's elections board approved a new precinct map Tuesday that shrinks the county's precincts from 523 to 364 ahead of the May 7 minicipal primary elections.
The Times reports the precinct consolidations mean nearly 90,000 voters will have a new polling place.
Lake County Democrats had resisted a 2017 state law requiring the county to develop a plan for consolidating precincts with fewer than 600 active voters, arguing that it would most heavily impact the county's heavily-populated northern Democratic strongholds.
Democrats saidSecretary of State Connie Lawson's consolidation plan would disenfranchise elderly and minority residents without transportation, forcing them to travel farther to reach their polling places.
