Johnson County
Johnson County redistricted in 2011 and remedied some apparent earlier problems with non-contiguous pieces. However, the population deviation between the largest and smallest districts is an unacceptably high 24%. Johnson County needs to take another crack at redistricting.
- Overview
- Map
- Data
County Redistricting Overview
State law and state and federal court decisions require that local government districts be compact, contiguous, not cross precinct boundaries, and be as nearly equal in population as possible (usually with population deviation of less than 10%). To be in compliance, answers to each of the questions below should be "Yes".
Note: Other requirements regarding vote dilution and minority representation are not examined in this report.
Were the districts based on the 2000 census in compliance with state law? | No. The population deviation is unknown, but pieces of District 2 were wholly contained inside of District 3. | |
Did the county redistrict after the 2010 census? | Yes | |
Is the population deviation of the current districts less than 10%? |
No. It is 24%. | |
Are the current districts compact and contiguous? | Yes. The problems with District 2 and 3 have been remedied, although the U shape of District 1--which follows the entire eastern and southern sides of the county and most of the western side--is not ideal | |
Is every precinct wholly contained within a single district? | Yes |
2010 Census Data
In 2012, we were able to determine exact populations for each county council district by identifying which precincts (as drawn in 2011 by each county) were in which county council district. We were able to calculate precinct populations using the 2010 census as long as precincts contained whole census blocks, which they are supposed to do.
District 1 | 32,048 | | | District 2 | 40,353 | | | District 3 | 33,289 | | | District 4 | 33,964 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Total Population | 139,654 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Average District Population | 34,914 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Population Deviation | 24% |
Population deviation is calculated by subtracting the smallest district from the largest district and dividing by the average district population. The maximum allowable deviation for local governments is 10%.