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Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State <br /> 2021 Redistricting Guide <br /> 15 <br />3.0 CITY WARDS <br />3.1 What are wards? <br />Wards are portions of a city that are represented by specific elected official(s) on the city council. These council <br />members are elected by the voters who live within that ward. Of the 853 cities in Minnesota, approximately 70 use <br />wards for electing council members, including 8 of the 10 largest cities in the state. In other cities, voters in the entire <br />city vote for all councilmembers, which is known as “at-large.” Cities with wards are always organized as charter cities. <br />Cities with wards must redistrict their wards after the federal census, and must make the wards’ populations as equal as <br />practicable. This process has an impact on a city’s precincts and thus is often done in conjunction with precinct <br />reestablishment. See the Precincts section for details about precincts and their reestablishment. <br />3.2 Ward requirements <br />Wards must be drawn to satisfy statutory requirements for boundaries as well as population. City charters may also <br />specify additional requirements for the wards within a city beyond what is presented here. <br />3.2.1 Ward boundaries <br />Wards must be drawn to meet statutory requirements about their boundaries. These requirements influence the <br />geography of the ward districts. These requirements include that: <br />• Wards are bounded by precinct lines, <br />• Wards are compact in area, <br />• Wards are composed of contiguous territory. <br />(M.S. 204B.14, subd. 1, 205.84) <br />While it is no longer required that precinct boundaries follow Census block boundaries or physical features, it may be <br />helpful administratively. Using Census block boundaries allows a city to get definite populations for each precinct or <br />ward. Using physical features for boundaries also helps to make it clear to the public where a precinct or ward begins <br />and ends. <br />Note that Census blocks will not reflect any municipal annexation after January 1, 2020. If a city has annexed territory <br />since that date, the precinct and ward plans should be written to include any annexed areas. However, the population of <br />the recently annexed area may be difficult to accurately determine (see below for more information). <br />3.2.2 Ward population <br />Wards must be as equal in population as practicable. (M.S. 205.84 subd. 1) <br />It may not be possible to draw wards that are exactly equal in population. Situations where wards may have unequal <br />population are: <br />• The total population of the city is not divisible by the number of wards, or <br />• The population totals within census blocks do not provide refined enough numbers to draw equal population <br />wards. <br />For the purpose of redistricting wards, the city must use the population counts that are certified by the U.S. Census <br />Bureau and reflect the city’s population as of April 1, 2020. Therefore, the city does not necessarily need to consider any <br />annexation of population after the completion of the decennial census. However, case law has established that in some <br />situations a city may consider post-census population changes or imminent development when redistricting wards.