2022 Redistricting Plan Overview

On February 15th, the Special Redistricting Panel appointed by the Minnesota Supreme Court issued final congressional and legislative plans. While all of St. Cloud remains in Congressional District 6, our State legislative districts 14A and 14B have been re-aligned with Highway 23 in Stearns County.  The 14A & 14B boundary is depicted on the City’s Proposed 2022 ward and precinct map by a yellow line.

Now that the State has completed their portion of the redistricting process, the City must do the same with its ward and precinct boundaries.  This task must be completed by March 29th in order to allow counties, schools, parks, hospitals, and soil water conservation districts to establish their lines by May 1st.  Our proposed timeline for adopting a new ward and precinct map is as follows:
 
February 15 – Plan released by State
February 23 – Ward Redistricting Plan is posted to the website
February 28 – Item placed on consent agenda to set public hearing for March 28th.
March 28th – Public hearing held on ordinance adopting new ward and precinct map.
 
The release of the legislative boundaries to the public on February 15th does not leave a lot of time for consideration of multiple ward/precinct configurations. The submitted map provides the best alternative that will comply with State and Charter guidelines with the least disruption for our voters. 
 
 Considerations for the City’s redistricting process:

1. Each ward shall consist of contiguous compact territory, and whenever possible ward lines shall follow the center line of streets, avenues, alleys and boulevards. Ward lines shall not divide then-existing residences or platted blocks.
2. Wards must be “equally apportioned by population within an allowance of ± .25% of the population of the City as disclosed by the last preceding decennial federal census“
3. Whenever wards have been reapportioned no further reapportionment shall be made until the announcement of the population disclosed by the next federal decennial census.
4. In the event any territory shall be annexed to the City it shall become part of the adjoining ward.
5. City is required to notify each voter affected by a change in polling place

The 2020 official census population is used as the basis for redistricting. The City had 68,881 residents recorded during the census.  Because the main purpose of redistricting is to equally distribute the population, each of the City’s four wards should contain approximately 17,220 residents.  The Charter’s + or - .25% requirement results in an allowable population variation of ± 172 residents between the largest and smallest wards.  
 
This small tolerance limits the options that can be considered when redrawing ward boundaries.  In addition, we prefer to make as few boundary changes as possible in order to avoid confusing the voters who may be affected by those changes.  

Once the wards have been established, those wards are further divided into precincts. There is no population requirement for precincts, but precincts need to be a size where the elections can be administered efficiently (size of voting facilities, equipment, etc.).

When redistricting is completed by all government units and new polling places are established, every household affected by the change will receive a notice indicating their new districts and polling location.  The City will be responsible for paying any mailing costs involved. Along with the mailed notice, the City will publicize the new ward and precinct boundaries and polling locations through news releases, Channel 171, and the website.
 
 The new ward and precinct boundaries go into effect for the August 9th State Primary Election.
 
See the proposed ward and precinct map here. 

Comment on the 2022 Proposed ward map here. 

Other important election dates can be found here.

Sign up to be an election Judge here.