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in my dictionary english-german precinct is translated as pedestrian zone. If that is not wrong (obviously i am not english) you might want to add it. --134.130.243.106 12:11, 10 May 2006 (UTC)[reply]
The use of "precinct" in this political way is not universal in English-speaking countries: we don't use it at all in British politics, for example, and in the UK "pedestrian precinct" is the most common use. Unfortunately political/voting coverage on Wikipedia is very noticeably US-slanted. Although we non-American editors are trying to include more non-US coverage, the sheer number of American Wikipedians means that quite often a page is created with 90%+ of it dealing with the US. 81.159.58.45 (talk) 17:16, 1 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Remembering my schoolboy German, "Fussgangerzone" would indeed be translated into English as "pedestrian precinct" or "pedestrianised zone" so your dictionary is correct. In the US I believe it usually refers to the patrol area of one police station in a city with many police stations, and that is the useage you will come across more often in American TV programmes and films. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.107.183.201 (talk) 20:46, 29 June 2009 (UTC)[reply]
This former German, now Australian, does not like the use of that term in this country.
Not surprisingly, the German translation is a little problem because the German language supports precision and clarity. The word precinct has different meanings in different places and is not precise. But English is drifting apart, we know that. Using the same word for different things is not a good idea.
The best translation in German would be Viertel (quarter) with the added characteristics. Unterhaltungsviertel, Restaurantviertel, Einfkaufsviertel, Universitätsviertel etc. I get annoyed when I hear it on Australian TV because it is a wobbly word and probably just comes from someone's spontaneous ill conceived Americanisation of Australian English. 2001:8003:A02F:F400:ED2B:5580:5607:EF7D (talk) 03:57, 3 October 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Precincts as the smallest "minor civil division"?[edit]
The precinct isn't necessarily the smallest "minor civil division", at least not if that term includes townships, as the article suggests - for example, Boone County, Iowa is divided such that there are several townships in its rural precincts. --129.186.95.76 (talk) 20:45, 27 November 2007 (UTC)[reply]
In Texas, there are two types of precincts, both of which are divisions of the county.
The first type of precinct is a "commissioners [sic] precinct." Each county is divided into 4 commissioners precincts for the purposes of electing the county commissioners court, which is the legislative body of the county government. Texas Constitution, Article 5, Section 18 (b).
The second type of precinct is the "justice of the peace and constable precinct". Each county may have as few as 1 and as many as 8 precincts of this type, depending upon that county's population. The county commissioners court determines the number of justice of the peace and constable precincts within the ranges allowed by the state constitution. In general, each such precinct established by the county commissioners court has 1 justice of the peace and 1 constable. In precincts and counties with larger populations, however, the county commissioners court may authorize up to 2 justices of the peace to serve in the same precinct. Texas Constitution, Article 5, Section 18 (a). There have been political movements to eliminate the office of constable, because the duties of a constable within a precinct duplicate those that the sheriff performs throughout the county. A compromise of sorts was reached that authorizes any county commissioners court to declare a constable's office to be dormant if no constable has legally served in that precinct for 7 consecutive years. During the dormancy, a constable may not be elected or appointed in that precinct. Texas Constitution, Article 5, Section 18 (h). Vereverde (talk) 02:55, 7 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]
At the moment this article is a walking violation of WP:NOT, with more information about the word "precinct" than any encyclopedic concept. As one might expect, the incoming links reflect an unholy blend of meanings, including some not reflected on this page at all. Suggest following:
Remove the existing plethora of dictionary definitions entirely (other than pointer to Wiktionary), per WP:NOTDIC.
Move information about the "precinct" minor civil division used in certain counties of Illinois and Nebraska to Minor civil division, in lieu of a full article about the county-precinct system.
Move precinct (this current page) to Electoral precinct, since that's what the bulk of its content and edit history relate to.
After the move, convert precinct to a disambiguation page (including pointer to Wiktionary).
This is going to leave a ton of links to be cleaned up (although a fair number of the existing ones seem to be coming from ((Voting))), so I figure it would be a good idea to post here first. -- Visviva (talk) 05:39, 27 January 2020 (UTC)[reply]