By NICK GOSNELL
Hutch Post
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Hutchinson Democratic Rep. Jason Probst noted that the redistricting meetings being held in the state this week seem premature without the underlying population data needed to draw the lines.
"August 12 we'll get some preliminary data," Probst said. "It's later on, maybe in September, that we'll get final precinct-level data, or census block data. That's one of the things we're hearing a lot of. I think at every stop, someone has mentioned the fact that they don't know exactly what to bring to the committee's attention, because we don't have the foundational data that we need to argue what a community of interest is."
Probst said even as a member of the committee, these hearings came up fast for him.
"Last Friday, I was at the Lip Sync Battle for Stage 9, downtown Hutch and got an alert that this was happening, it came from the press," Probst said. "We never saw anything official until just a handful of days before we were set to go out on the meetings. More importantly, this is, I think, a key point. I'm a legislator. I can deal with that. I'm used to the games that are played up here. The more important point is that, people in our communities that we're going to, did not have enough advance notice to even prepare any statement."
The meeting in Hutchinson is Wednesday morning from 9 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. at Stringer Fine Arts Center.
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