(Council Bluffs) Early voting begins on Wednesday, July 12, for a special election on August 1 in Pottawattamie County to decide how the County Board of Supervisors should be elected.
The Pottawattamie County Board of Supervisors approved the special election on June 6 after private groups gathered and submitted a petition with nearly 4,000 signatures to allow county residents to choose between three options for county supervisor elections.
Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber says, currently, Pottawattamie County is a Plan One county, which means each member of the board of supervisors is allowed to reside anywhere in Pottawattamie County. The county’s voters elect all five members of the Board of Supervisors. Plan Two would divide the county into two districts of roughly equal population. One supervisor must reside in each of the districts, and voters would still elect all five members of the board; Plan three would also divide the county into five sections of roughly equal population, but voters would elect one supervisor who resides in the same district as the voter and would not vote for the other four supervisors in the other four districts.
If plan two or plan three passes, Pottawattamie County will be split into four districts, with one of those four also including some portions of the county adjacent to the city. One district will not include any portion of Council Bluffs. Districts cannot be set until after the election, but the video presentation released by Pottawattamie County explains the lawful factors that determine district size and outlines where district boundaries will likely be drawn.
To view the video presentation, visit YouTube.com/Pottawattamie County
The Polls will open from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on August 1. Early voting begins on July 12.
