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The Laurel City Council is considering a vote-by-ward system for local elections, along with other pieces of legislation stemming from the results of the Sept. 8 special referendum election.

Charter Resolution 143 would change the date of city elections to the first Tuesday in November in odd-numbered years, extend the current term of the mayor and City Council to accommodate the shift in election dates and allow city residents to vote only for council candidates who represent the ward in which they live. All of these changes were approved by voters in the referendum election.

Charter Resolution 142 would require at least one polling place in each ward for city elections.

Both resolutions were introduced at Monday's council meeting and will face a second public hearing at the next council meeting on Oct. 26 — at which point the council could decide to vote on the legislation.

Councilman Frederick Smalls (Ward 2) said the resolution is a logical move in light of the change to a voting-by-ward system.

"It goes without reason to say that there would be a polling place in each ward, at minimum," he said.

The number of polling places for city elections became an issue prior to the referendum election when Laurel Resident Adrian Rousseau announced he was suing the city over its refusal to establish a voting site in Ward 2.

Rousseau has said the city's reluctance to have more than one polling place is an effort to discourage blacks and Latinos from voting in local elections — a notion the council has adamantly denied. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates Laurel is 44 percent black and 9 percent Hispanic or Latino.

The new council resolution to add polling places is a positive move, Rousseau said, but the idea came about for the wrong reason.

"Whether they approved voting by ward should have been irrelevant," he said. "It should have already been in place."

Laurel resident Maureen A. Johnson agrees with the resolution to add more polling places, but said the shift to voting-by-ward could hinder efforts to unite city residents and increase interest in council elections.

"I didn't think that was necessary," she said. "They're going to represent the whole city, so I didn't agree with that."

However, Rousseau said he thinks voting-by-ward will make the council members more accountable to the people who elect them, and Smalls said the change could be a way of drawing more voters to local elections.

"It's the people's will," Smalls said. "We'll certainly respond accordingly."