This map of Johnson County shows the current district boundaries for Johnson County Board of Commissioners.
County officials will discuss new district maps and precinct boundaries during a special meeting Thursday.
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners will meet at 1 p.m. to discuss establishing new boundaries for precincts that have outgrown a 2,000-person cap on population, adding five new precincts and establishing new district boundaries for the commissioners and Johnson County Council.
The commissioners will entertain public comments at the discretion of the board chairman, said Shena Johnson, county attorney.
There is no objection period for redistricting, but state law allows a 10-day objection period for the precinct order.
Assuming the commissioners reach an agreement on the boundaries, the boundary map will be finalized Thursday, Johnson said.
Any public objections to the precinct boundaries would be discussed at a meeting of the Indiana Election Commission, and those would be handled based on the process outlined in state law.
The following precinct boundaries will change due to population increases: Franklin 15, Pleasant 22, and White River 15, 35 and 37. The following new precincts will be added to accommodate population growth: Pleasant 50 and 51, and White River 44, 45 and 46.
The full precinct order is available for public inspection and copying at the Johnson County Clerk’s Office in Franklin and Indiana Election Division in Indianapolis. Voters can file objections to the new precinct boundaries until noon Jan. 2, by mailing comments to the Indiana Election Division at 302 W. Washington St., Room E-204, Indianapolis 46204.
New boundary maps for commissioner and council districts were not available for public inspection as of Tuesday afternoon, Johnson said.
The once-a-decade redistricting process was delayed due to the pandemic. The U.S. Census Bureau delayed the 2020 count, which delayed the release of census data and Indiana’s redistricting of congressional and statehouse districts.
Johnson County officials couldn’t start the process locally until the state legislature finalized those district maps, as precinct boundaries cannot cross statehouse districts.
County officials were told Dec. 20, that their proposed precinct boundaries were approved by the Indiana Election Division, Johnson said. So, in the past week and a half, county officials have been working on the new maps that will be discussed at the meeting Thursday. A redistricting committee comprised of Johnson County Clerk Trena McLaughlin, a commissioner, Johnson and a representative from the GIS, or Geographic Information System, department is working on the maps.
“The timeline has been dependent upon the delayed action from the state legislature, which then triggered the reprecincting process,” Johnson said last week. “Only after the IED’s approval of the county’s precincts could the county consider and approve changes to the local district boundaries. Even then, the boundaries must consider numerous factors outlined in state law (not solely population). Each Indiana county has unique characteristics that impact this analysis. We are confident in the approach taken by the commissioners and will consider all relevant factors at next week’s meeting.”
The county council must be redistricted every 10 years, but the process is optional for county commissioners. The commissioners chose to redistrict this year, but it is unclear if the map will become more balanced.
Local redistricting expert Kelsey Kauffman told the Daily Journal in November that the commissioners have the most unbalanced districts she has ever seen after studying Indiana redistricting for multiple cycles. Kauffman, a retired professor, said there is a nearly 200% deviation between the county’s three districts.
The commissioner districts are each comprised of three townships, with District 1 representing White River, Pleasant and Clark townships, District 2 representing Union, Franklin and Needham townships and District 3 representing Hensley, Nineveh and Blue River Townships.
Because a large portion of the county’s population is concentrated in White River and Pleasant townships, District 3 Commissioner Ron West represents 117,338 people, which is 70% of the county. District 2 Commissioner Kevin Walls represents 31,634 people, and District 1 Commissioner Brian Baird represents 12,793 people.
State law gives commissioners wide latitude to create their own districts. Each county of 250,000 or fewer people must be divided into three districts composed of contiguous territory that is reasonably compact. The boundaries must not divide precincts and should cross township boundaries only when necessary to accomplish another redistricting standard, state law says.
The population inequality is amplified because the commissioners are elected in county-wide elections, though they represent a specific portion of the county. Anyone in Johnson County can vote for all district representatives, so voters in District 3 have more say over who is elected in District 2 and 1 than the people who live there, Kauffman said.
“If your voice counts 10 times as much as anyone else’s, that is a clear imbalance,” she said.
The Johnson County Democratic Party asked the commissioners to take action on population imbalance. With regard to county council boundaries, local party leaders Amanda Stevenson-Holmes and Josh King wrote the commissioners asking them to address the apportionment of the four residential county council districts.
“We believe the county council districts 1-4 are malapportioned based on most recent census data in violation of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, as well as the requirements set forth in Indiana Code 36-2-3-4(d),” they said in the letter. “We, and other Johnson County residents, hope you will be fulfilling your constitutional and statutory responsibilities by redrawing these districts in ways that are not only legally acceptable but also uphold our country’s democratic values. If, as the county executive, you opt to not fulfill these obligations, you will leave the county exposed to possible legal action.”
County councils are required to redistrict if there is greater than 10% of deviation between the population of each district. Right now, there is a 24% deviation among council districts, according to Kauffman’s analysis.
Housing growth in District 2, which includes parts of Pleasant Township and all of Franklin Township, has prompted the need to redistrict, McLaughlin said.
As the map is now, District 2 has 45,779 residents, while the next closest district has 40,225 and other districts have less than 40,000 residents, according to Kauffman’s data.
The commissioners have the authority to update the county council boundaries, per state law. The council will not take a vote on their district boundaries, Johnson said.
