Kentucky’s legislative redistricting haunted the county clerks of Campbell and Kenton counties by forcing them to set up “ghost precincts.” “Ghost precincts” were created in strips of land where nobody lives in response to make House and Senate districts contiguous, said Campbell County Clerk Jack Snodgrass. The legislature approved the redistricting plan in August 2013. A wooded hillside along Sleepy Hollow Road is home to Kenton County’s ghost Fort Wright 4.5 precinct. Nobody is registered to vote in the Sleepy Hollow precinct including Ichabod Crane. And Crescent Springs 3.5, another ghost precinct, is along the Norfolk Southern railroad tracks. The new precincts were created in response to the redrawing of the 23rd Senate District and the 65th and 69th House districts.
Campbell’s “ghost precinct” is a three-mile strip of Ohio River bottom land along Ky. 8 from Dayton to Silver Grove, Snodgrass said. The precinct includes wooded river shore property in Fort Thomas city limits. There is a marina and a couple of waterworks buildings, but no residences in the precinct, he said. “It’s between the railroad tracks and the river, so nobody can live there unless they live on a houseboat,” Snodgrass said.
If someone does live on a houseboat within the precinct, it doesn’t count as an eligible address, he said. “It’s a ghost precinct,” Snodgrass said. “We’ve got to have a voting machine for it and everything else, but nobody can vote there.”
Full Article: Redistricting haunts election with ‘ghost precincts’.