Why Did Linn County Supervisor Call Friday 'A Sad Day?'

According to The Gazette, the Linn County Board of Supervisors adopted a supervisor district elections map that none of the board members are happy with.

"It’s just a sad day," Supervisor Linda Langston said.

The map that has been adopted is part of the county redistricting process that takes place after every census.

The process involves appointing a redistricting comission to re-draw the districts that supervisors represent, taking into account shifts in population.

Earlier in the year, the supervisors and the Linn County auditor were all in favor of the map drawn by this year's comission, but Iowa Secretary of State Matt Schultz rejected it.

The supervisors' preferred plan had parts of Cedar Rapids in four out of five districts, but had most of the district boundaries for each district spreading out into rural areas, with one of the four districts mostly in rural territory. That left one district for Marion and the surrounding areas.

When that plan was rejected by Schultz, the supervisors were advised that they had split Cedar Rapids into three districts. Since the laws of redistricting prevent a city the size of Marion from being split up, the leftover district resembles a doughnut that wraps around the rural areas near Cedar Rapids and Mairon.

Supervisor John Harris said that's bad, because that means that the entire rural population of Linn County can only be represented by one seat on the board of supervisors.

Marion Patch has been following on this story through the week. An in-depth update will be posted early next week.