Voters in 25 of Northumberland County's 36 municipalities will take part Tuesday, along with voters in eight other counties, to elect a member to the U.S. House of Representatives from the 11th Congressional District.
Reapportionment after the 2010 Census has transformed the 11th District from a cluster of five counties centered around the cities of Scranton, Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton, to a veritable gerrymander that stretches from Wyoming County in the northeast quadrant of the state to Cumberland County in its south-central part.
At the time of the 2010 election, and for the four preceding congressional contests, the 11th District included all or parts of Carbon, Columbia, Lackawanna, Luzerne and Monroe counties.
Now, the 11th incorporates part of Carbon County, all of Columbia, part of Cumberland, part of Dauphin, part of Luzerne, all of Montour, part of Northumberland, part of Perry and all of Wyoming County.
The Shamokin-Mount Carmel area and, roughly, all points in Northumberland County south, east of and including Sunbury, are in the 11th District. The rest of the county, including Northumberland, Milton and the county's "northern panhandle," remain in the 10th Congressional District.
Only 34 percent of the voters in today's "new" 11th were part of the "old" 11th in 2010, according to the online website, Ballotpedia. Sixty-six percent of the electorate in the new 11th came from four other congressional districts, including 7 percent from the 9th, 24 percent from the 10th (including Northumberland County voters), 24 percent from the 17th and 10 percent from the 19th.
The 11th is currently represented by Lou Barletta, of Hazleton, who lives close to the northern end of the district. His Democratic opponent, Gene Stilp, is from Dauphin County, near the southern end.
Redistricting has also changed the 11th's political makeup. According to figures provided by Barletta's campaign office, in 2010, Democrats had a 58 to 31 percent registration advantage over Republicans in the then five-county district. In 2010, Barletta defeated a long-time Democratic incumbent, Paul Kanjorski.
At the time of redistricting, in early 2012, voter registration in the new nine-county congressional district was about evenly balanced - 44 percent Democrat and 43 percent Republican - or 192,797 Democrats and 190,304 Republicans. These figures do not take into account the closure of the most recent voter registration period.