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Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State <br /> 2021 Redistricting Guide <br />20 <br />Within these requirements, governing bodies may create as many or as few precincts as necessary for the community. <br />Unlike elective districts, voting precincts are based on administrative convenience and may contain a large or small <br />population. However, precincts containing more than 2,000 registered voters can become unwieldy for election <br />administration purposes. <br />There are benefits to drawing precinct lines to follow census block boundaries. Municipal wards and county <br />commissioner districts must be approximately equal in population. The only way to ensure that the districts are <br />balanced by population is to know the census count for the precincts making up the districts, and the only way to know <br />with any certainty the population count of the precincts is to use census blocks as the basis for setting precinct <br />boundaries. Additionally, the legislative and congressional plans will use census blocks exclusively to draw district <br />boundaries. Precincts abutting legislative or congressional districts must use at least some census block geography in <br />order to match the district boundaries. <br />The county board establishes precincts in unorganized territories. At minimum, the unorganized territories in the county <br />must be at least one precinct, and additional precincts are necessary if a congressional or legislative boundary divides <br />the unorganized territory. Beyond this, counties are free to create as many or as few precincts as is appropriate for the <br />community and election administration. <br />4.3 Precincts and the redistricting process <br />4.3.1 Precinct freeze <br />Normally the governing body may make changes to precinct boundaries at any time before December 1 of the odd year. <br />However, state election law freezes all precinct boundary lines from January 1, 2020 until after legislative and <br />congressional redistricting is completed. The statutes establishing the precinct freeze allow two exceptions to the freeze <br />period: to accommodate an annexation or to divide an existing precinct. (M.S. 204B.14) <br />1.In the first exception, if a city annexes an area located in the same county as the city and the annexed area is <br />adjacent to the city boundary the annexed area may be included in a precinct immediately adjacent to it. <br />However, to include the recently annexed area into the city precinct all other statutory requirements such as not <br />crossing legislative, congressional, or county commissioner districts still apply. The statutes do not provide an <br />exception for including a non-adjacent annexation into a city precinct. (M.S. 204B.14 subd. 3 (a)) <br />2.The second exception provides that a municipality or county may split an existing precinct. To do this the newly <br />established precincts must not extend beyond the boundaries of the original precinct. Additionally, the names of <br />the new precincts must include the name of the former precinct. (M.S. 204B.14 subd. 3 (b)) <br />4.3.2 Preparation <br />4.3.2.1 Review city charter or policies <br />Before redistricting, the city charter or official policies should be reviewed to determine if the municipality has <br />established any specific redistricting related tasks. This is particularly true for cities with wards, whose charter may have <br />ward requirements in addition to those specified in law. If there are any conflicts between the city charter or policies <br />and Minnesota law, municipalities should work with their attorney to determine how best to reconcile the conflicts. <br />4.3.2.2 Clarify roles, responsibilities, duties, and expectations <br />It is a good practice within your municipality to clarify and define the roles, responsibilities, duties, and redistricting- <br />related expectations of the municipal clerk, staff, council/board, and/or other groups before redistricting begins. An <br />agreement on who will do what tasks and when may safeguard everyone involved from unintentionally overstepping the <br />tasks others are intending to do. <br />It is a good idea for those with redistricting responsibilities to learn as much as they can about the redistricting process. <br />Reviewing this guide is just one step in the learning process. There are many sources for additional information. Some of