New Pinal supervisor districts to be presented at public meetings

• 6-7 p.m. Feb. 7 at the Pinal County Complex in Maricopa;
• 3:30 to 4:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at the Apache Junction Performing Arts Center;
• 10 to 11 a.m. Feb. 10 at the Arizona City firehouse;
• 6 to 7 p.m. Feb. 15 at the 1891 Courthouse in Florence;
• 3 to 4 p.m. Feb. 16 at MountainView Clubhouse in Saddlebrooke;
• 6 to 7 p.m. Feb. 17 at the San Manuel Community Center;
• 6 to 7 p.m. Feb. 22 at the Pinal County Complex in San Tan Valley;
• 6 to 7 p.m. Feb. 23 at Casa Grande City Hall.

Two maps showing proposed new districts are expected to be displayed by Feb. 3 on Pinal’s redistricting website at www.pinalcountyaz.gov/redistricting. Every 10 years after a new U.S. Census is completed, Pinal County is required to revise supervisor districts to ensure populations between the five districts remain substantially equal. Voter precincts and Justice Court precincts are also updated at that time.

The Board of Supervisors is expected to review and consider approval of new supervisor districts in early March, being mindful of its previously adopted redistricting principles and public input.

The new districts must be relatively balanced on population, within 10% of each other, and should not split up political subdivisions and “communities of interest.” Other redistricting principles, which the board adopted last year, were:

• Compactness: There should be a minimum distance between all parts of a constituency, for example in a circle, square or hexagon.
• Contiguity: All parts of a district must be connected at some point with the rest of the district.
• Preservation of cores of prior districts as previously drawn, to preserve continuity of representation. New districts should also avoid creating contests between incumbents.
• District lines should not intentionally or unduly favor a person or political group, or create a “safe” district for a certain party.