All About Iowa’s Redistricting Process

The Iowa redistricting process is led by the state’s nonpartisan legislative services agency along with a strict timeline for when it must be approved. This is critical to providing voters with the time they need to research candidates and educate themselves ahead of an election.

Iowa law requires that individual counties cannot be split into multiple legislative or congressional districts. Iowa’s process also requires that districts be nested. There are two state house districts within each state Senate district and state Senate districts follow the same boundary lines as congressional districts – no state districts are divided into multiple congressional districts.

What’s more, Iowa law specifically highlights what factors should not be taken into consideration, including favoritism for a political party, incumbent legislator or member of Congress. Data about the addresses of incumbents, voter registration by parties, previous election results and most demographic data are not to be considered when establishing districts.

In many ways, our ability to protect our rights in the United States is incumbent on our ability to vote, and more importantly cast a vote that has equal weight as those of our neighbors and fellow Americans across the U.S. Perhaps the Court said it best in Wesberry v. Sanders: “Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.”