SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - What if, in their haste to pass new political boundaries, Utah Legislators had accidentally split people's homes and put each half into a different congressional district?
Sound far-fetched?
Well, wait until you find out what we found out.
In the late Monday night debate over new congressional districts, it occurred to some that not even the bill's sponsor knew exactly what was in his new and final map.
So ABC 4 took a closer look on the internet.
We were surprised to find several Utah houses actually split in half on the congressional maps.
Now, we couldn't get a comment from the owner of the split house we visited, so, instead, we went to someone we suspected might have a thing or two to say about divided houses.
"There is a half a house! There is a half a house!"
This is how the clearly startled Chairman of Utah’s Democratic Party reacted when we showed him the maps of half-houses.
But, once he came to his senses, Jim Dabakis immediately blamed Republicans for drawing last minute maps behind closed doors,
"You end up with stupid mistakes like this. That's what happens with closed caucuses."
ABC 4 found nearly a dozen houses where new congressional boundaries split homes.
And there certainly could be more half-houses we didn't find.
Dabakis, sensing an opportunity, immediately (and somewhat sarcastically) labeled Republicans as being anti-family,
"Another half a house! This is going split up families and the Democratic Party is for keeping families together."
Now, ABC 4 is being assured this half-house mess will be corrected.
When we asked how...
We were told that often the voters end up in the congressional district that the house's bedroom is in.
Seriously.
*EDITOR'S NOTE:
The Utah Senate later published an explanation of the boundary issues. To read that response, click here.Follow Chris Vanocur on Twitter: @cvan4
