State rejects Linn County redistricting map, orders changes

Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz has rejected Linn County's proposed new election map a second time, ordering the county to either re-draw it or have an alternative imposed upon it.

Supervisors will consider their response at Monday morning's work session, board chair Ben Rogers said.

"I'm not sure what our recourse is," said Rogers, D-Cedar Rapids, who represents the present Third District. "We're going to work with our counsel on what our options are and go from there."

The work session is set for 9 a.m. Monday in the lower-level board room at Linn County West in Westdale Mall.

The letter from Schultz received late this afternoon rejects supervisors' Oct. 13 re-submission of the original plan. The plan approved unanimously by supervisors in September has sections of Cedar Rapids in four of the five proposed new supervisor districts, but state law requires local jurisdictions to be divided into the smallest number of county districts possible - three in Linn County's case, according to Schultz.

"The County has not provided any evidence that it is impossible to draw a map with Cedar Rapids divided between no more than three supervisor districts," Schultz's letter reads. "On the contrary, the County submitted a map with this request for reconsideration demonstrating the county has knowledge that it is possible to draw a map with Cedar Rapids split into only three supervisor districts."

Schultz ordered the county to submit a new plan with Cedar Rapids in three districts, adopt a plan drawn by the Legislative Services Agency, or wait to have the LSA plan imposed by his office. The new map would take effect Jan. 15.

The LSA map places Cedar Rapids in three districts, with Marion, Central City, and Bertram in a new District 5, leaving the rest of the county in a large U-shaped district.

Supervisors had argued a map with four Cedar Rapids districts - one of which includes mostly non-city residents, one that's entirely within the city, and two with city majorities - would give rural residents better chance at electing at least two supervisors, and keeps district sizes manageable.