Linn redistricting choice delayed for more detail

CEDAR RAPIDS - It will be at least a couple more weeks before Linn County residents and elected officials get a look at the county's election map for the next decade.

“So you're saying we're talking a lot but not getting very much figured out today?” Chairman Mike Wyrick said near the end of the county redistricting commission's 90-minute meeting Thursday afternoon.

Instead of picking a new map of supervisor districts from among three options as planned, redistricting commissioners instead put off the choice to their Aug. 18 meeting. The delay was prompted by a minor boundary change due to recent annexations by Hiawatha and Marion, and the larger question of a proposed district's geographical area.

The annexations forced the commission to scrap Option 2B, the map that most closely resembles the current version, but a new, slightly modified version, Option 2C, was approved for further consideration.

County Auditor Joel Miller said a meeting between his staff and the Iowa Secretary of State's election officials clarified the standards the state agency will use to judge the fitness of the final map. The secretary of state gives final approval to the new map after it's submitted by the county after a public hearing.

“We're finding out what their standards are,” said Miller, noting the state has approved just four of the 13 redistricting plans submitted so far. “This is a bit of a moving target for us.”

The secretary of state's office is using 2010 Census population data, while Miller's staff has drawn maps using more up-to-date information including the annexations by Hiawatha and Marion. The state informed Miller that census blocks can't be split by a district boundary, as they were by the annexations.

So Option 2C shifts two district boundary lines to prevent that. Miller said the change affects 200 Hiawatha voters and 48 in Marion.

The redistricting commissioners also requested Miller's staff to provide the information they'll need to judge the three maps on the compactness of their districts, one of the state's criteria. That means measuring each proposed district from its most distant edges and each district's perimeter.

Wyrick noted any of the three maps still under consideration include districts more compact than the current one.

“All three look to me to be better than what we have,” he said. “So we should be able to choose either one” without fear of state rejection.

“I think you have three winners here,” agreed Eric Loecher, election systems administrator in the county auditor's office. “So I don't think that you guys are going to go in a wrong direction.”