Through the month of February, Pinal County will be embarking on its redistricting process of Supervisor Districts and Justice Precincts.
Every 10 years after a new Census is completed providing updated population data, Pinal County is required to revise Supervisor Districts to ensure populations between the five districts remain substantially equal. As part of this redistricting process, Voter Precincts and Justice Precincts are also updated.
Community meetings start tonight, Feb. 7, at 6 p.m. and continue through Feb. 23 in each Supervisor District for public input on Supervisor Districts and Justice Precincts. Then in early March, the Pinal County Board of Supervisors will meet to review and approve new Supervisor Districts and Justice Precincts, being guided by the redistricting principles and while considering public input.
Guiding policies, principles for redistricting
- Representation: Electoral maps must follow the principle of “one person, one vote,” in which each district has a substantially similar number of people.
- Compactness: There should be a minimum distance between all the parts of a constituency, for example a circle, square or a hexagon is the most compact district.
- Contiguity: All parts of a district must be connected at some point with the rest of the district.
- Preservation of political subdivisions: City or town boundaries should be considered when drawing districts to avoid splitting communities.
- Preservation of communities of interest: Geographical features and areas such as neighborhoods or unincorporated communities where the residents have common interests, should be considered when drawing districts and kept intact.
- Preservation of cores of prior districts: To preserve continuity of representation and to the extent possible, effort should be made to maintain the core of the districts as previously drawn.
- Avoid pairing incumbents: Electoral maps should strive to avoid creating districts that would create contests between incumbents.
- Favoring or disfavoring an incumbent, candidate or party is prohibited. District lines should not intentionally or unduly favor a person or individual political group.
- Competitiveness: The Arizona constitution states that “to the extent practicable, competitive districts should be favored where to do so would create no significant detriment to the other goals.” This criterion typically seeks to avoid the creation of “safe” districts for a particular party.
For more information, visit pinalcountyaz.gov.
Note: The current addressing system in the areas surrounding the Town of Queen Creek causes significant confusion among current and potential residents. Queen Creek often receives requests for information and services from residents and potential home buyers in unincorporated Pinal and Maricopa counties. Because the U.S. Postal Service establishes ZIP codes for efficient mail delivery, Queen Creek ZIP code boundaries do not always match the Town of Queen Creek’s incorporated municipal boundaries.
The Town of Queen Creek has authority to provide services only within its incorporated boundaries. In the municipality of Queen Creek, these services are paid for by residents through property taxes, development fees paid with each building permit issued for a new home, and building permit fees for such things as swimming pools and home additions. Local sales taxes and construction sales taxes also help pay for services to residents.
For more information on Queen Creek boundaries, visit queencreekaz.gov/residents/do-i-live-in-qc.
