Government : PUBLIC NOTICE: Redistricting Committee to hold Public Hearing

Public Notice

The Benton County Redistricting Committee will hold a public hearing on Friday, March 25, 2022, at 9:00 a.m. in the Benton County Service Center Conference Room, 811 D Ave, Vinton, IA, to hear comments or objections to the proposed election precincts. The proposed precincts are as follows:

Boundaries of Election Precincts:

The boundaries of election precincts containing unincorporated areas of Benton County and cities shall be as follows:

BENTON-CANTON-SHELLSBURG: All of Benton Township, all of Canton Township, and all of the City of Shellsburg

BRUCE-CEDAR-MONROE-MT AUBURN: All of Bruce Township, all of Cedar Township, all of Monroe Township, and all of the City of Mt. Auburn

BIG GROVE-UNION-VAN HORNE: All of Big Grove Township, all of Union Township, and all of the City of Van Horne

EDEN-HARRISON-TAYLOR-JACKSON-GARRISON: All of Eden Township, all of Harrison Township, all of Taylor Township, all of Jackson Township, and all of the City of Garrison.

ELDORADO-NEWHALL: All of Eldorado Township and all of the City of Newhall

FLORENCE-ST CLAIR-NORWAY-WALFORD: All of Florence Township, all of St Clair Township, all of the City of Norway and all of the City of Walford in Benton County.

FREMONT-ATKINS: All of Fremont Township and all of the City of Atkins

IOWA-LEROY-LUZERNE-BLAIRSTOWN: All of Iowa Township, all of Leroy Township, all of the City of Luzerne, and all of the City of Blairstown

HOMER-KANE-KEYSTONE: All of Homer Township, all of Kane Township and all of the City of Keystone

POLK-URBANA: All of Polk Township and all of the City of Urbana

Additional Election Precincts: The city councils of Belle Plaine, and Vinton, have established their own election precinct plans.

A map of the proposed districts may be obtained at the Benton County Auditor's Office. Comments or objections may also be sent in care of the Benton County Auditor's Office, PO Box 549, Vinton, IA 52349.

Editor's Note:

The county is required to redraw the voting precincts following the census results every decade in an attempt to make the voting precincts as equal as possible.

As a result, these are the proposed changes and will be considered for the new precincts.

Once the new map is decided, public hearings are held to give anyone an opportunity to voice issues they have with the proposed changes. The committee will then take these into consideration and will present the final maps to the Supervisors for approval.

Three of the four precincts need to be corrected because of changes in the borderlines drawn at the state level.

The new Iowa Senate District map, can be seen here:https://gis.legis.iowa.gov/Plan2/Plan2Senate8x11_color_2021.pdf The Iowa House District map can be seen here:https://gis.legis.iowa.gov/Plan2/Plan2House8x11_color_2021.pdf

When the districts were redrawn at the state level, it split a Benton County precinct. The Benton County Redistricting Committee is required to correct the issue and move the precinct lines so that the precincts are now contiguous.
Another change that the Redistricting Committee needed to deal with was due to the census block in Walford.

Benton County will now have 17 precincts rather than 19.