All of the Washington County Board of Supervisors will still reside in each of their districts as a result of the once-every decade redistricting.

The board approved the adoption of the proposed redistricting and reprecincting plans and approved the second reading of an ordinance for the reprecincting and waived the third during Tuesday’s meeting. County Auditor Dan Widmer continued to praise Deputy Auditor Sue Meeks and County Geographic Information Systems Coordinator Dewy Royer for their work in mapping the new districts according to population changes seen from the 2020 census. Meeks explained how the pandemic-delayed census count affected the volunteer county redistricting commission’s process, “The commission had to be selected in May which you guys approved at that time, but there was no census data given. Ten years ago it was given in August but this time it wasn’t given until December.”

Meeks added that they also couldn’t meet until the City of Washington’s new wards were drawn, ultimately giving the commission two to three weeks to approve the maps, for which they met twice during that period. All of the current supervisors still remain in their numbered districts, though notably District Two which is currently composed of the cities of Kalona and Riverside, will now only include Kalona and stretch south following the city’s annexation of the former Shiloh complex. Meeks also noted that precincts cannot have a population of more than 3,500 including incorporated and unincorporated residents. The new voting precincts show that West Chester will no longer be a precinct location, while Richmond will return as a precinct.