Kanawha County commissioners approved several new precincts at a special meeting Wednesday, moving 407 voters into new state delegate and Senate districts in the process.
The decision marks a final solution to clerical errors that put about 1,300 registered voters in the wrong delegate and Senate districts in the 2016 primary election. About 133 of the voters had been voting in the wrong race since 2012.
"The situation, I believe, is resolved," said Commission President Kent Carper. "I believe our goal is to do the best we can."
The county brought in a political cartographer, Doug McKenzie, from Summersville to make a map and catch any potential errors. Using the map, McKenzie was able to find areas where new precincts needed to be created.
No polling places will be changed with the newly created precincts.
That's important for Delegate Larry Rowe, D-Kanawha, who has been voting in the wrong Senate district in Malden for years.
Rowe and his wife have had a tradition of walking to the polls to vote since before their children were born.
When the county recognized 240 voters in Malden had been voting in the wrong Senate district since 2012, there was concern some of the people in Malden would have to vote in Rand.
The county avoided moving the voters by creating Precinct 115A, allowing Rowe to continue his tradition.
"It's very important that people know where to vote," Rowe said. "I think they've done the right thing by keeping people in the same polling places. I think it would have been really upsetting to people in Malden."
Carper took on the tone of a lawyer presenting his case when explaining the solutions the commission had come up with. In the process, he placed blame on the Legislature for gerrymandering.
"I don't think it's fair to criticize the Legislature for some of the worst gerrymandering in history," Carper said.
Delegate Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, who's district was affected by the mistakes, said he was planning on proposing a resolution in the upcoming session calling for an independent commission to draw the redistricting lines.
There were errors at the county level as well. The most recent revelation, that Malden had been voting in the wrong Senate district, could not be caught just by looking at maps. The county had correctly identified the neighborhoods in the right area and it is unclear how voters ended up being registered in a precinct where they didn't live.
Shortly after the primary election, the county made its largest correction, placing the about 800 voters in the Sherwood Forest neighborhood back into the correct delegate district.
County Clerk Vera McCormick said Sherwood Forest voters were placed in the wrong district when the county redrew precincts to accommodate the new Charleston ward lines in 2015.
On Wednesday, the county made three more changes to place voters in the correct delegate district. In Kanawha City, 24 voters were moved to Delegate District 36. On Hill Drive, in Charleston, 13 voters were placed in Delegate District 37.
In South Hills, voters who had been voting in the wrong delegate district since 2012 were placed in Delegate District 36.
While some Republican lawmakers had objected to moving voters in the middle of an election year at earlier meetings, there were no objections at Wednesday's meeting.
"These delegates are going to have to learn these voters again," said Carolyn Stricklen, the chairwoman of the Kanawha County Republican Party, adding that it's unfortunate some people will not be able to vote for the same person they voted for in the primary.
But Stricklen said it was more important the problems be corrected.
"We need to reach out to these people and say 'hey, you may have voted for X in the primary, but that's not going to happen,'" Strickland said.
When asked if affected voters would be notified of the changes, Carper feigned outrage.
"Are you kidding?" Carper said. "You don't think we're going to do that?"
McCormick also moved polling places for people who were affected by the floods. People who voted at Clendenin Elementary School will vote at First Baptist Church in the fall. People who voted at Herbert Hoover High School will vote at Bridge Elementary.
People who voted at God's Lighthouse Church will vote at the FOP Lodge because of complaints that God's Lighthouse was too small.