Iowa lawmakers consider bill to change supervisor elections for most populous counties

Elections for county supervisors in the state’s most populous counties would change under a bill being considered in the Iowa Legislature.

The Iowa Senate Local Government Subcommittee advanced a bill Tuesday that would require county supervisors be elected from single-member, equal-population districts in counties with populations of 125,000 or more, or which are home to one of Iowa’s three public universities.

Based on the 2020 census, the bill would impact Polk, Linn, Scott, Johnson, Black Hawk and Story counties.

Iowa's two largest counties — Polk and Linn — already elect by districts. Black Hawk, Johnson, Scott and Story counties elect supervisors at large, without district residence requirements for county board members.

Currently, Iowa counties can choose one of three ways to elect supervisors: countywide by district, countywide without district residence requirements for members; or from equal-population districts in which voters of each district elect a single member.

The legislation also would require county supervisor vacancies be filled by special election.

During a subcommittee hearing on the bill Tuesday, Sen. Janice Weiner, D-Iowa City, said she doesn’t think lawmakers should be “playing politics” with board elections in Iowa’s largest counties, which are mostly represented by Democrats.

“It's not broken. So why are we trying to fix it?” Weiner said during the subcommittee meeting. “If, by the same token, we're going to do this and require districts, then we should require for everybody or we should greatly lower the threshold.”

Gary Grant, representing the Linn County Board of Supervisors and the Urban County Coalition, noted that the current election system already accommodates for equally representing rural and urban voters.

“We have a mechanism that works if people don't like a representation plan or the number of supervisors that they have, and we would encourage you to maybe just think about that before you advance a bill like this, that we trust voters to make all kinds of decisions,” Grant said. “I don't know why we wouldn't trust them to make this one.”

Both the Linn County Board of Supervisors and the Urban County Coalition are against the bill.

Iowa Senate Local Government Subcommittee Chair Dawn Driscoll, R-Williamsburg, said Senate Study Bill 1018 is not a political move and gives a voice to rural communities.

“It's very impactful and very important for these areas to be represented by rural people,” Driscoll said in the subcommittee meeting. “To me, it's not a political game at all. It is rural representation versus the urban and I think that that is very defined.”

Matt Gronewald, representing the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, which is supporting the bill, agreed with Driscoll.

“Our members believe that counties should be no different with our larger counties as it relates to county supervisors, that county supervisors should be elected by district, live in the district, so that both rural and urban voices are heard,” Gronewald said.

On the three-person subcommittee, both Driscoll and Sen. Dave Sires, R-Cedar Falls, supported moving the bill forward. Wiener did not sign on.

A similar bill made it to the Iowa House floor in 2023 and was amended to only apply to counties home to one of Iowa’s three public universities before it failed.