Linn County voters stay with current representation plan

CEDAR RAPIDS - Linn County's representation plan - which dictates how county supervisors are elected - will remain unchanged.

At the 8 p.m. close of Tuesday's special election, in which fewer than 10,000 votes were cast, more than 71 percent of Linn County voters had chosen to stick with the county's current representation plan, which has supervisors living within specific districts and elected by the residents of their respective district.

Supervisor Stacey Walker summed up the results as a success for all Linn County residents.

'Representation by districts is going to allow for people in all communities, rural and urban, to have a voice on their Board of Supervisors,” he said. 'This also allows for the greatest chance for there to be ideological diversity on the board.”

The majority of the current Board of Supervisors endorsed the current representation plan.

The other two options on Tuesday's ballot - one that would have maintained supervisors in select districts, but allow countywide residents to vote for all members of the board, and an entirely at-large plan - received 15 percent and 13 percent of votes, respectively.

'I think the voters thought that the current system was a very good system,” said Matt Price, president with Linn County Farm Bureau, which endorsed the winning plan.

Linn County Farm Bureau spent about $17,500 on billboards, yard signs and radio advertising endorsing the current representation plan, according to campaign finance reports filed with the Iowa Ethics and Campaign Disclosure Board.

'I'd say it paid off. It definitely got the message out,” Price said.

A total of 9,339 residents voted in the countywide special election, making for a voter turnout of about 6.2 percent. That's more than 3,000 fewer people than signatures on the June petition that called for the special election in the first place.

Votes will be canvassed next week.

With Linn County proceeding with districts, but set to reduce from five supervisors to three in 2019, the county now must begin the redistricting process - which involves remapping out the county for three districts.

Supervisors earlier this year created a temporary redistricting committee to map out districts, but later put that effort on hold to see the results of the special election.

Now that effort can proceed.

'I think the most important thing is the people have their right to exercise their vote. The voters chose and we just move forward,” said Supervisor James Houser, who said he would have preferred an at-large representation plan.

Iowa Code dictates that districts be divided into similar populations, and a city must be split into the smallest number of districts. That means Cedar Rapids, the county's largest city, could seat two of the county's three supervisors, with Marion picking up the bulk of the third district.

Meanwhile, Auditor Joel Miller, who in November filed a document establishing an exploratory committee for a supervisor bid, has recused his office from preparing maps for the temporary redistricting commission.

As a potential candidate in the next supervisor election, Miller said he doesn't want to allow for any perception of interference or bias in the redistricting process.

He said Johnson County has offered to prepare maps for the commission.

The terms for all five current supervisors will expire at the end of 2018. Voters in November of that year will select three supervisors to form a new board in January 2019.

l Comments: (319) 339-3175; mitchell.schmidt@thegazette.com