Fort Bend Commissioners Court members soon will vote on boundary line changes and consolidation of numerous county voting precincts, proposed by county Elections Administrator J.R. Perez.

Perez also will ask court members to consider adding five new early voting locations in the county.

The precinct boundary changes are being proposed because some precincts still don’t comply with a controversial statewide redistricting approved in a special session of the Texas Legislature in the summer of 2003, Perez said Tuesday.

Consolidation of other districts is being proposed for a variety of reasons. Eight precincts would be eliminated under the proposal.

Fort Bend Republican Party Chairman Gary Gillen said he hasn’t yet spoken to Perez about the proposed changes, but understands the reasoning behind them and agrees with that reasoning.

Democratic Party Chairman Elaine Bishop didn’t return a call for comment Wednesday morning. However, Democratic Fort Bend County Precinct 2 Commissioner Grady Prestage said he forwarded a copy of Perez’s proposal to Bishop.

“The consolidations…are fine. These were easy consolidations that should have been completed a long time ago,” Prestage said, adding that they should not hamper anyone’s ability to vote, and in some cases involve voting locations that were as close as four blocks apart.

Perez, Gillen and Prestage all noted that state law recently changed, and now allows up to 5,000 people to be located within the same voting precinct instead of the previous 3,000.

“With a growing county like we’ve got, it makes sense that they start preparing for the future,” Gillen said of elections administration officials.

He also said because of flukes in which lines were drawn in the past, some of the current precincts “have no humans in them.”

Gillen said election officials also “are trying real hard to get away from using schools, especially elementary schools,” as polling locations, “because of security reasons.”

Prestage said the school issue is less about security more a matter of logistics, and the difficulty of conducting a major election in a building where school is being held.

“I look at the number of people in a district, the distance they have to travel” to vote, and the building now being used as a polling location, Perez said.

He submitted a list of precincts either whose boundary lines need to be changed or which he is recommending for elimination on a permanent basis. The list may change before Commissioners Court considers the matter, but as for now includes:

→ 1012, 1016, 1037, 1039, 1048, 1067, 1072, 1085, 1120, 1128;

→ 2017, 2023, 2031, 2036, 2051, 2052, 2055, 2056, 2060, 2071, 2075, 2077, 2115, 2116, 2123;

→ 3020, 3035, 3095, 3097;

→ 4011, 4029, 4045, 4046, 4047, 4049, 4064, 4084, 4102, 4105, 4108, 4109, 4110, 4111, 4119, 4125, 4127, 4129, 4131.

In that list, precincts 3095, 3097, 4108, 4109, 4110, 4111, 4125 and 4131 would be eliminated under the election administration’s proposal. The rest would have their boundaries adjusted.

Perez also will ask court members to consider adding five new early voting locations in the county.

The precinct boundary changes are being proposed because some precincts still don’t comply with a controversial statewide redistricting approved in a special session of the Texas Legislature in the summer of 2003, Perez said Tuesday.