The Legislative Services Agency released their first redistricting map Thursday featuring four congressional districts rather than the current five.

The Legislative Services Agency is a nonpartisan agency found within the Iowa Legislature, tasked with both legislative and congressional redistricting according to guidelines imposed by the Iowa Constitution and Iowa Code.

Using such an agency protects the redistricting process from practices such as gerrymandering, which means no political party can manipulate the boundaries to create districts that swing toward one political party.

“One of the standards for drawing the lines is that we do not take into account any political information in regard to where incumbents reside, elections returns or party registration,” said Ed Cook, senior legal counsel for the Legislative Services Agency. “Once the census released the population statistics, we use the population data to redraw the lines based on equal population requirements.”

After looking at population statistics and how to balance the population as effectively as possible, the agency must then also look at how to keep districts as compact as possible. A reasonably compact district are those “which are square, rectangular or hexagonal in shape, and not irregularly shaped,” according to the report released by the Legislative Services Agency.

Trying to keep populations as equal among the districts as possible is priority over keeping the districts compact, as shown by the proposed redistricting map released Thursday. Having equivalent populations causes irregular-shaped districts, such as District 1.

“On the whole, I would say … the unusual shapes of these districts leave something to be desired,” said James Hutter, associate professor of political science. “I think the advantage of having districts that are more reasonably shaped and compact is better than having districts having such mathematical equality.”

The state legislative districts will also be adjusted and modified according to population changes.  In Story County, Representative Beth Wessel-Kroeschell’s district got larger, while Representative Lisa Heddens’s district got much smaller.  Senator Herman Quirmbach’s district was also condensed in the process.

A large impact will also be felt by Iowa’s representatives in Congress because of the consolidation of five districts to four.

“Going from five to four members means that one of the people who are there now will not be re-elected and, as of today, they’ve all announced that they’re going to seek re-election,” Hutter said.

But releasing the map is only the first step in the process.

The Temporary Redistricting Advisory Commission holds four public hearings throughout Iowa next week. From these hearings, the commission will issue a report, which will then be given to the Legislature, who will then decide whether to approve or reject the plan.

If the plan is approved, the bill will be enacted into law, but if it is rejected, the process restarts from step one with the Legislative Services Agency’s plan two.

In the 2001 redistricting process, the second plan was approved, and in the 1991 process, the first plan was approved.

If no plan is approved by Sept. 1, the Iowa Supreme Court must step in and establish districts based on the constitutional requirements.