by April Scheinoha
Reporter
Thanks to redistricting, there will be more Pennington County Board seats on the ballot this fall. Four of the five commissioner seats will be on the ballot. At a special meeting Tuesday, April 19, commissioners approved a redistricting proposal after a public hearing.
Commissioner Dave Sorenson, representing District 2, and Chairperson Bruce Lawrence, representing District 5, will have to run for reelection this year if they choose to continue to serve on the board. If they’re on the ballot, they would be running for the remaining two years of their four-year terms.
Redistricting also affected Districts 3 and 4; however, those seats would have been on the ballot anyway. Neil Peterson currently represents District 3, and Darryl Tveitbakk represents District 4.
Commissioner Seth Nelson’s District 1 seat isn’t affected by redistricting. The seat will be on the ballot in 2024.
The 2020 census found the county population grew by 62 residents to 13,992 from 2010. The 2020 average population by district was 2,798.
Two rules govern redistricting. According to County Auditor-Treasurer Jennifer Herzberg, “district populations cannot vary by more than 10% from the average for all districts in the county unless the result forces a voting precinct to be split.” Any commissioner “whose district has a total population shift (total population = a population shift in plus a population shift out of the district) of greater than 5% of the average countywide populations (140) would have to rerun regardless of the year of their normal elections.”
The Thief River Falls City Council was required to redistrict, which led to changes in the county commissioner districts. County district boundaries weren’t changed, but the districts were influenced by population shifts once some Thief River Falls wards were reconfigured. Those shifts included:
• 262 residents shifting into Commissioner District 2 and out of District 3; and
• 229 residents shifting into District 4 and out of District 5