49.3 Election precincts.

Election precincts shall be drawn and named or numbered by the county board of supervisors or the temporary county redistricting commission in all unincorporated portions of each county, and by the city council of each city in which it is necessary or deemed advisable to establish more than one precinct. Precincts established as provided by this chapter shall be used for all elections, except where temporary merger of established precincts is specifically permitted by law for certain elections, and no political subdivision shall concurrently maintain different sets of precincts for use in different types of elections. Election precincts shall be drawn so that:

1. No precinct shall have a total population in excess of three thousand five hundred, as shown by the most recent federal decennial census.

2. Each precinct is contained wholly within an existing legislative district, except:

a. When adherence to this requirement would force creation of a precinct which includes the places of residence of fewer than fifty registered voters.

b. When the general assembly by resolution designates a period after the federal decennial census is taken and before the next succeeding reapportionment of legislative districts required by Article III, section 35 of the Constitution of the State of Iowa as amended in 1968, during which precincts may be drawn without regard to the boundaries of existing legislative districts.

3. Except as provided in section 49.4, subsection 3, precincts established after July 1, 1994, shall be composed of contiguous territory within a single county. The boundaries of all precincts shall follow the boundaries of areas for which official population figures are available from the most recent federal decennial census.

4. All election districts, including city wards and county supervisor districts, shall be drawn according to the following standards:

a. All boundaries, except for supervisor districts for counties using supervisor representation plan “two” pursuant to section 331.209, shall follow precinct boundaries.

b. All districts shall be as nearly equal as practicable to the ideal population for the districts as determined by dividing the number of districts to be established into the population of the city or county.

c. All districts shall be composed of contiguous territory as compact as practicable.

d. Consideration shall not be given to the addresses of incumbent officeholders, political affiliations of registered voters, previous election results, or demographic information other than population head counts, except as required by the Constitution and the laws of the United States.

e. Cities shall not be divided into two or more county supervisor districts unless the population of the city is greater than the ideal size of a district. Cities shall be divided into the smallest number of county supervisor districts possible.

[C51, §245; R60, §480; C73, §501, 605; C97, §1090; S13, §1090; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §721, 722, 723; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, §49.3, 49.4, 49.5; C75, 77, 79, 81, §49.3]

94 Acts, ch 1179, §4, 5; 95 Acts, ch 67, §53; 99 Acts, ch 17, §1; 2006 Acts, ch 1010, §37; 2010 Acts, ch 1033, §15

Referred to in §49.4, 49.5, 49.6, 49.7, 49.8, 49.11, 273.8, 277.6, 331.210A, 331.383