vlog Investigates: Steps begin to redistrict voters for future 5-seat Dallas County supervisors board
In 2026, Dallas County voters will first elect five supervisors instead of the current three.
Until then, there are lots of steps to take, and the process is just getting started.
A redistricting commission will work to apportion voters by population. Its members are Supervisor Julia Helm, Urbandale City Council Member Bridget Carberry-Montgomery and local businessman Monty Button.
“Our next meeting is coming up quickly, and we will start working through dividing the population by five,” said Helm.
They meet later this week and have until October to finish.
The shift to add two seats to the supervisors’ board began last year with a petition started by Waukee Mayor Courtney Clarke. Other Dallas County cities also requested the measure to go on the November general election ballot.
Voters approved doing so.
One step that came up at Tuesday’s supervisors meeting was what population to use for Waukee in the redistricting.
All supervisors approved using Waukee's 2024 special census population in the redistricting. Waukee had more than 31,823 people in 2024. It had nearly 23,940 in 2020.
That matters because the more updated counts could help the redistricting commission divide voters evenly.
“We are glad that all our residents are counted for this important work and look forward to working with the new supervisors as the board expands,” said a statement from the City of Waukee.
vlog Investigates reached out to 15 communities in Dallas County about special censuses.
Of the 15, Clive and West Des Moines said they intend to have partial special census. Those plans had been put on hold due to federal hiring freezes. They might affect the redistricting process if they request to have the most current count used.
Several other cities are considering them, but had concerns about federal hiring. West Des Moines just found out its census has been activated.
It won’t be until 2027, that five supervisors will take office in Dallas County. Helm said the process can seem slow but the goal is to ensure the work is done well.
"We just want to be as accurate in what we need to do by Iowa code because we don’t want to do all this work and then have a caveat or the Secretary of State questioning something we’re doing,” Helm said. “We’re just getting our marching orders.”