Every ten years the Marion County Board has to redraw the boundaries of the five county board districts so they have equal population.
Normally they have new US Census Data to guide them, but County Clerk Steve Fox told the County Board Tuesday night it will most likely not arrive in time before the board has to approve its new map at the July meeting.
“Do you approve your maps from 10 years ago? Do you try to re-district without good data? Do you do nothing? All of those are options for our board. They need to get legal council from our State’s Attorney which I think he has already offered to them and try to make the best decision that they can for their constituents and that it will make for good elections in the future also.”
Fox says it isn’t possible to delay the redistricting.
“The actual circulation of petitions start around September. So how can you possibly run for a County Board seat if you don’t know what the district boundaries are or if you are even in it. That is where the timeline is a really tight structure.”
The county board approved a Redistricting Committee to work on a plan to send to the full county board. The members include Board Vice-Chair Dr. Creighton Engel and board members Chris Krupp, Adam Smith, David Iossi, Wesley Gozia and Deb Reed.
