(1) In adopting a county commissioner district redistricting plan, the commission shall: (a) Make a good-faith effort to achieve mathematical population equality between districts, as required by the constitution of the United States, but in no event shall there be more than five percent deviation between the most populous and the least populous district in each county, at the time such district boundaries are adopted; and (b) Comply with the federal "Voting Rights Act of 1965", 52 U.S.C. sec. 10301, as amended. (2) (a) As much as is reasonably possible, the commission's plan must preserve whole communities of interest and whole political subdivisions, such as cities and towns; except that a division of such city or town is permitted where, based on a preponderance of the evidence in the record, a community of interest's legislative issues are more essential to the fair and effective representation of residents of the district. When the commission divides a city or town, it shall minimize the number of divisions of that city or town. (b) Districts must be as compact as is reasonably possible. (3) (a) Thereafter, the commission shall, to the extent reasonably possible, maximize the number of politically competitive districts. (b) In its hearings in various locations in the county, the commission shall solicit evidence relevant to competitiveness of elections in the county and shall assess such evidence in evaluating proposed plans. (c) When the commission approves a plan, the staff or advisory committee shall, within seventy-two hours of such action, make publicly available, and include in the commission's record, a report to demonstrate how the plan reflects the evidence presented to, and the findings concerning, the extent to which competitiveness in district elections is fostered consistent with the other criteria set forth in this section. (d) For purposes of this subsection (3), "competitive" means having a reasonable potential for the party affiliation of the district's county commissioner to change at least once between federal decennial censuses. Competitiveness may be measured by factors such as a proposed district's past election results, a proposed district's political party registration data, and evidence-based analyses of proposed districts. (4) No plan may be approved by the board of county commissioners or the commission if the plan: (a) Has been drawn for the purpose of protecting one or more incumbent members, or one or more declared candidates, of the board of county commissioners, or any political party; or (b) Has been drawn for the purpose of or results in the denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen to vote on account of that person's race or membership in a language minority group, including diluting the impact of that racial or language minority group's electoral influence. (5) So long as the commission has complied with the requirements of subsections (1) through (4) of this section, in adopting a county commissioner redistricting plan, the commission may consider congressional districts, state house of representative districts, and state senate districts in order to minimize the number of necessary voting precincts in a county.
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