Two attorneys, including one from the ACLU of Michigan, appeared before the Ann Arbor City Council Tuesday night to challenge a proposed plan to redraw the city's ward boundaries in the middle of this year's election cycle.

Their arguments were enough to convince council members to amend the ordinance before them to state that the changes — albeit minor ones — won't take effect until Dec. 1.

"Both common sense and legal analysis say that you should not change the ward boundaries between the primary and the general election this year," said local attorney Tom Wieder, suggesting it was "highly likely" the city would be sued if it did so.

Staff members in the city clerk's office and attorney's office had recommended the proposed reapportionment plan go into effect following the August primary — where three council races will be decided this year — but in advance of the November general election.

After agreeing that's a bad move, council members ultimately postponed taking a vote on the reapportionment plan.

John Shea, an attorney for the Washtenaw County Branch of the ACLU of Michigan, said his group had numerous concerns with changing the boundaries before November.

"One concern is that when candidates file nominating petitions to get on the ballot, they do so with a clear understanding, at least in their own minds, about who their electorate will be," he said. "This will skew that. It may even have skewed who chose to be a candidate as opposed to who chose not to be a candidate based on the ward boundaries that were in effect."

He said it also could disenfranchise hundreds of voters, especially given the fact that elections in Ann Arbor usually are decided in the August primary.

"There will be either no opposition or token opposition in the general election," he said. "For persons who are redistricted into a ward where that is true, they will effectively have no choice in who their elected representative is going to be."

Washtenaw County Clerk Larry Kestenbaum also weighed in on the debate in the form of a written communication Tuesday night. He said he was writing on behalf of state election director Chris Thomas and county election director Matt Yankee.

"In an ideal world, perhaps the ward boundaries could have been updated before this year's filing deadline," he said. "But that ship has sailed. It doesn't make logical sense to change the ward boundaries after the election process is already underway."

Council Member Marcia Higgins, D-4th Ward, made the motion to push back the effective date of the ward boundary changes to after the November election.

Higgins also said she's been disappointed in how the city has handled the reapportionment process this year. She said she thinks the city could do a better job of drawing the boundaries so they adhere to guidelines in the city's charter, which state that each of the five wards should be a pie-shaped segment coming out of the center of the city.

Council Member Christopher Taylor, D-3rd Ward, was the lone dissenting voice when the council voted 8-1 to postpone consideration of the boundary changes to a future meeting, though the decision to change the effective date to Dec. 1 passed by a 9-0 vote. Council Members Margie Teall, D-4th Ward, and Sandi Smith, D-1st Ward, were absent.

City Clerk Jacqueline Beaudry unveiled maps showing the proposed boundary changes last month. They aim to move certain 1st Ward areas in the downtown and near the University of Michigan campus into other wards to account for shifts in the city's population.

The target population number based on the new census data is 22,787 residents for each of the city's five wards. City staff's proposed changes reduce the size of the 1st Ward and increase the other four wards, coming within 1 percent of the target in each ward.

The proposed changes were prepared by the city clerk and city attorney's offices with support from staff in the information technology department.

Larger sections would go to the 4th and 5th wards. The boundary line between the 3rd and 4th wards also would be realigned to follow Packard Street.

Ryan J. Stanton covers government and politics for AnnArbor.com. Reach him at ryanstanton@annarbor.com or 734-623-2529. You also can follow him on Twitter or subscribe to AnnArbor.com's e-mail newsletters.