(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds will soon decide whether county supervisors in the three counties where Iowa’s public universities are located are elected to represent districts or the entire county. A bill to forbid at-large county supervisor elections in Black Hawk, Johnson and Story Counties has cleared the House and Senate with Republican support. Senator Dawn Driscoll, of Williamsburg, says it’s about giving a voice to rural residents who feel ignored. “We are trying to mitigate the effects of the high student populations which are seasonal instead of permanent residents,” she said.

Senator Kara Warme, of Ames, says she enjoys having students in the community, but the population is far different in July when students are gone. “What I hear again and again from my constituents is those who are the permanent residents — the generational farmers, those who are concerned about getting their crops to market, driving on secondary roads, managing their volunteer fire department — those are their interests and they don’t have any voice right now on the board of supervisors.” Democrats voted against the bill. Senator Herman Quirmbach, of Ames, says permanent residents already have a disproportionate advantage because turn out among students is significantly lower.

“I think we really ought to admit what this bill really is,” he said. “it’s an attempt at political gerrymandering to draw district lines in such a way as to advantage one party over another.” Senate Democratic Leader Janice Weiner, of Iowa City, says the bill is an attack on local control in three of Iowa’s 99 counties. “You either do it for everybody or you don’t do it for anybody,” she said. Representative Adam Zabner, a Democrat from Iowa City, says Pottawattamie, Scott and Woodbury Counties have similar populations to the three counties addressed in the bill. “What is the difference between those three counties and Johnson, Black Hawk and Story County?” Zabner said. “Johnson, Black Hawk and Story elect Democrats more often than they elect Republicans. This is a blatant political effort to change who is elected in these counties.”

Representative Brett Barker, a Republican from Nevada, says when he was campaigning last year, the number one complaint wasn’t about property taxes — it was about the county board of supervisors. “They don’t feel like their votes matter in county government,” he said. “They feel like they’re out voted by people on the campus that couldn’t even tell you what a county supervisor does.” Representative Bobby Kaufmann, a Republican from Wilton, says rural voices are drowned out in Johnson County — home of the University of Iowa. “There is next to no rural representation in these three counties,” Kaufmann said. “…Ronald Reagan’s ghost could be resurrected and he would not still give rural representation in these areas.” The bill also forbids county supervisors from filling vacancies and requires special elections when a member of the board of supervisors in Black Hawk, Johnson and Story Counties resigns or dies in office.

In a 2023 special election in Iowa’s 10th largest county — Pottawattamie County, 64 percent voters rejected plans to have county supervisors elected by districts, preserving the system of at-large elections for Pottawattamie County Supervisors.