42.4 - REDISTRICTING STANDARDS.
42.4 REDISTRICTING STANDARDS.
1. Legislative and congressional districts shall be established
on the basis of population.
a. Senatorial and representative districts, respectively,
shall each have a population as nearly equal as practicable to the
ideal population for such districts, determined by dividing the
number of districts to be established into the population of the
state reported in the federal decennial census. Senatorial districts
and representative districts shall not vary in population from the
respective ideal district populations except as necessary to comply
with one of the other standards enumerated in this section. In no
case shall the quotient, obtained by dividing the total of the
absolute values of the deviations of all district populations from
the applicable ideal district population by the number of districts
established, exceed one percent of the applicable ideal district
population. No senatorial district shall have a population which
exceeds that of any other senatorial district by more than five
percent, and no representative district shall have a population which
exceeds that of any other representative district by more than five
percent.
b. Congressional districts shall each have a population as
nearly equal as practicable to the ideal district population, derived
as prescribed in paragraph "a" of this subsection. No
congressional district shall have a population which varies by more
than one percent from the applicable ideal district population,
except as necessary to comply with Article III, section 37 of the
Constitution of the State of Iowa.
c. If a challenge is filed with the supreme court alleging
excessive population variance among districts established in a plan
adopted by the general assembly, the general assembly has the burden
of justifying any variance in excess of one percent between the
population of a district and the applicable ideal district
population.
2. To the extent consistent with subsection 1, district
boundaries shall coincide with the boundaries of political
subdivisions of the state. The number of counties and cities divided
among more than one district shall be as small as possible. When
there is a choice between dividing local political subdivisions, the
more populous subdivisions shall be divided before the less populous,
but this statement does not apply to a legislative district boundary
drawn along a county line which passes through a city that lies in
more than one county.
3. Districts shall be composed of convenient contiguous
territory. Areas which meet only at the points of adjoining corners
are not contiguous.
4. Districts shall be reasonably compact in form, to the extent
consistent with the standards established by subsections 1, 2, and 3.
In general, reasonably compact districts are those which are square,
rectangular, or hexagonal in shape, and not irregularly shaped, to
the extent permitted by natural or political boundaries. If it is
necessary to compare the relative compactness of two or more
districts, or of two or more alternative districting plans, the tests
prescribed by paragraphs "a" and "b" shall be used.
a. Length-width compactness. The compactness of a district
is greatest when the length of the district and the width of the
district are equal. The measure of a district's compactness is the
absolute value of the difference between the length and the width of
the district. In general, the length-width compactness of a district
is calculated by measuring the distance from the northernmost point
or portion of the boundary of a district to the southernmost point or
portion of the boundary of the same district and the distance from
the westernmost point or portion of the boundary of the district to
the easternmost point or portion of the boundary of the same
district. The absolute values computed for individual districts
under this paragraph may be cumulated for all districts in a plan in
order to compare the overall compactness of two or more alternative
districting plans for the state, or for a portion of the state.
b. Perimeter compactness. The compactness of a district is
greatest when the distance needed to traverse the perimeter boundary
of a district is as short as possible. The total perimeter distance
computed for individual districts under this paragraph may be
cumulated for all districts in a plan in order to compare the overall
compactness of two or more alternative districting plans for the
state, or for a portion of the state.
5. No district shall be drawn for the purpose of favoring a
political party, incumbent legislator or member of Congress, or other
person or group, or for the purpose of augmenting or diluting the
voting strength of a language or racial minority group. In
establishing districts, no use shall be made of any of the following
data:
a. Addresses of incumbent legislators or members of Congress.
b. Political affiliations of registered voters.
c. Previous election results.
d. Demographic information, other than population head
counts, except as required by the Constitution and the laws of the
United States.
6. In order to minimize electoral confusion and to facilitate
communication within state legislative districts, each plan drawn
under this section shall provide that each representative district is
wholly included within a single senatorial district and that, so far
as possible, each representative and each senatorial district shall
be included within a single congressional district. However, the
standards established by subsections 1 through 5 shall take
precedence where a conflict arises between these standards and the
requirement, so far as possible, of including a senatorial or
representative district within a single congressional district.
7. Each bill embodying a plan drawn under this section shall
provide that any vacancy in the general assembly which takes office
in the year ending in one, occurring at a time which makes it
necessary to fill the vacancy at a special election held pursuant to
section 69.14, shall be filled from the same district which elected
the senator or representative whose seat is vacant.
8. Each bill embodying a plan drawn under this section shall
include provisions for election of senators to the general assemblies
which take office in the years ending in three and five, which shall
be in conformity with Article III, section 6, of the Constitution of
the State of Iowa. With respect to any plan drawn for consideration
in a year ending in one, those provisions shall be substantially as
follows:
a. Each senatorial district in the plan which is not a
holdover senatorial district shall elect a senator in the year ending
in two for a four-year term commencing in January of the year ending
in three. If an incumbent senator who was elected to a four-year
term which commenced in January of the year ending in one, or was
subsequently elected to fill a vacancy in such a term, is residing in
a senatorial district in the plan which is not a holdover senatorial
district on the first Wednesday in February of the year ending in
two, that senator's term of office shall be terminated on January 1
of the year ending in three.
b. Each holdover senatorial district in the plan shall elect
a senator in the year ending in four for a four-year term commencing
in January of the year ending in five.
(1) If one and only one incumbent state senator is residing in a
holdover senatorial district in the plan on the first Wednesday in
February of the year ending in two, and that senator meets all of the
following requirements, the senator shall represent the district in
the senate for the general assembly commencing in January of the year
ending in three:
(a) The senator was elected to a four-year term which commenced
in January of the year ending in one or was subsequently elected to
fill a vacancy in such a term.
(b) The senatorial district in the plan which includes the place
of residence of the state senator on the date of the senator's last
election to the senate is the same as the holdover senatorial
district in which the senator resides on the first Wednesday in
February of the year ending in two, or is contiguous to such holdover
senatorial district. Areas which meet only at the points of
adjoining corners are not contiguous.
(2) Each holdover senatorial district to which subparagraph (1)
is not applicable shall elect a senator in the year ending in two for
a two-year term commencing in January of the year ending in three.
However, if more than one incumbent state senator is residing in a
holdover senatorial district on the first Wednesday in February of
the year ending in two, and, on or before the first Wednesday in
February of the year ending in two, all but one of the incumbent
senators resigns from office effective no later than January of the
year ending in three, the remaining incumbent senator shall represent
the district in the senate for the general assembly commencing in
January of the year ending in three. A copy of each resignation must
be filed in the office of the secretary of state no later than five
p.m. on the third Wednesday in February of the year ending in two.
c. For purposes of this subsection:
(1) "Holdover senatorial district" means a senatorial
district in the plan which is numbered with an even or odd number in
the same manner as senatorial districts, which were required to elect
a senator in the year ending in zero, were numbered.
(2) "Incumbent state senator" means a state senator who holds
the office of state senator on the first Wednesday in February of the
year ending in two, and whose declared residence on that day is
within the district from which the senator was last elected.
d. The secretary of state shall prescribe a form to be
completed by all senators to declare their residences as of the first
Wednesday in February of the year ending in two. The form shall be
filed with the secretary of state no later than five p.m. on the
first Wednesday in February of the year ending in two. Section History: Early Form
[C81, § 42.4] Section History: Recent Form
90 Acts, ch 1244, §1; 94 Acts, ch 1042, §1; 94 Acts, ch 1179, §3;
2006 Acts, ch 1010, §35, 36; 2007 Acts, ch 78, §6, 7; 2008 Acts, ch
1032, §8
Referred to in § 42.2, 42.3, 42.6, 68B.32A, 331.209, 331.210A