Allamakee County Commissioner of Elections shares how the 2020 Census affects local city voting wards and county voting precincts
submitted by Denise Beyer, Allamakee County Auditor and Commissioner of Elections
Every 10 years, following a census, cities over 3,500 population and all counties must go through a process called redistricting and/or reprecincting. Redistricting is the process by which new congressional and state legislative boundaries are drawn. Reprecincting is a process during which the boundaries of city wards may change, as well as boundaries for county voting precincts.
The Iowa Constitution provides that state representative districts be apportioned on the basis of population. Congressional district boundaries should be drawn to be as equal in population as possible, according to law. A state agency, the Legislative Services Agency or LSA, meets and proposes new boundaries for the congressional and state legislative districts.
New maps were signed into law November 4, 2021 and take effect for the 2022 election cycle. Maps of current Iowa Congressional District boundaries can be found at https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/districtMaps. Maps of the newly-approved congressional and state legislative districts can be found at https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislators/redistricting.
CHANGES WITHIN ALLAMAKEE COUNTY
Allamakee County is a Plan One Supervisor county, which means that all three county supervisors are elected at-large, without a district residency requirement. Therefore, Supervisor district boundaries are not required to be drawn.
The Board of Supervisors, working closely with the County Auditor, draws precinct boundaries. City Ward boundaries are drawn by Cities and are according to population, with the goal of the wards being as close to equal as possible. No ward or precinct can have a population of more than 3,500 people.
Changes made to County precinct boundaries were approved by the Board of Supervisors January 3, 2022 and submitted to the Secretary of State for review. Those changes are awaiting approval as of the writing of this article.
A few minor changes have been made to the Allamakee County precinct boundaries. The number of voting precincts was lowered by one, from 11 to 10. The precinct containing Franklin and Post townships has been combined with the City of Postville precinct. The County Auditor has been temporarily combining these two precincts for the past several years and can now permanently combine them after the 2020 census and the reprecincting process.
Also, the precincts for the three wards for the City of Waukon now follow city limits boundaries. Previously, due to the timing of some annexations in 2010 and 2011, and rules regarding census blocks being entirely in the same precinct, some rural voters from Union Prairie township voted with Ward 3 voters at the Allamakee County Courthouse location, and some rural voters from Jefferson and Ludlow townships voted with Ward 2 voters at the St. John’s Lutheran Church location.
After the 2020 census, these census block boundaries have been updated to follow new city limits boundaries and therefore, rural voters will no longer vote with city voters in the City of Waukon. All Union Prairie, Ludlow and Jefferson voters will now vote at the Waukon Banquet Center with the rest of their township residents. This makes all boundaries and precinct descriptions much cleaner and easier to understand.
New voting precincts in Allamakee County are as follows:
• Precinct 1 – Waterloo and Hanover Townships
• Precinct 2 – French Creek, Jefferson, Ludlow, Makee and Union Prairie Townships
• Precinct 3 – City of Postville, Franklin and Post Townships
• Precinct 4 – City of Waterville, Linton and Paint Creek Townships
• Precinct 5 – City of Harpers Ferry, Fairview and Taylor Townships
• Precinct 6 – City of Lansing, Center, Lafayette and Lansing Townships
• Precinct 7 – City of New Albin, Iowa and Union City Townships
• Precinct 8 – Waukon Ward 1
• Precinct 9 – Waukon Ward 2
• Precinct 10 – Waukon Ward 3.
Only one voting location has changed. Precinct 6 in Lansing will now permanently vote at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, rather than at the Kerndt Brothers Community Center. That change is mostly due to this being one of the largest precincts and the size of the available space at the Community Center has been decreased. Voting locations are published in county newspapers in a timeframe between four and 20 days before every election, as required by law.
CAUCUS LOCATIONS AFTER PRECINCT CHANGES
Caucus-goers in February should plan to participate at a location based on their voting precinct. Caucus locations are published in the January 26, 2022 edition of The Standard (Page 1) and will be again in the February 2 newspaper by the local Democrat and Republican Central Committees. Those with further questions are asked to contact their local Central Committee with questions about the caucus. The County Auditor’s office can provide the correct caucus location, but is not in charge of the caucus process.
