331.207 Special election — supervisor districts.
643 words·~3 min read·
/ia/chapter-331-county-home-rule-implementation/331-207A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
1. The board, upon petition of the number of eligible electors of the county as specified in section 331.306, shall call a special election to be held for the purpose of selecting one of the supervisor representation plans specified in section 331.206 under which the board of supervisors shall be elected.
2. The petition shall be filed with the county commissioner by June 1 of an odd-numbered year, subject to subsection 7. The special election shall be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November of the odd-numbered year. Notice of the special election shall be published once each week for three successive weeks in an official newspaper of the county, shall state the representation plans to be submitted to the electors, and shall state the date of the special election. The last in the series of publications shall occur not less than four nor more than twenty days before the election.
3. The supervisor representation plans submitted at the special election shall be stated in substantially the following manner:
The individual members of the board of supervisors in
........................ county, Iowa, shall be elected:
Plan “one”. At large and without district residence requirements
for the members.
Plan “two”. At large but with equal-population district residence
requirements for the members.
Plan “three”. From single-member equal-population districts in
which the electors of each district shall elect one member who must
reside in that district.
4. If the plan adopted by a plurality of the ballots cast in the special election is not the supervisor representation plan currently in effect in the county, the terms of the county supervisors serving at the time of the special election shall continue until the first day in January which is not a Sunday or holiday following the next general election, at which time the terms of the members shall expire and the terms of the members elected under the requirements of the new supervisor representation plan at the general election as specified in section 331.208, 331.209, or 331.210 shall commence.
5. If the plan adopted by a plurality of the ballots cast in the special election represents a change from plan “one” to plan “two” or “three”, or from plan “two” to plan “three”, as each plan is defined in section 331.206, the temporary county redistricting commission shall divide the county into districts as provided in sections 331.209 and 331.210. The plan shall be completed not later than December 31 following the special election and shall be submitted to the state commissioner of elections. The plan shall become effective the following January 1.
6. Notwithstanding any provision of this section to the contrary, a county with a population of sixty thousand or more based on the most recent federal decennial census that elects supervisors under plan “three” shall not change from plan “three” to plan “one” or plan “two” pursuant to a special election under this section unless a plan “one” or plan “two” representation plan is adopted by a two-thirds vote of the ballots cast in the special election. This subsection does not apply to a county with the main campus of an institution of higher learning governed by the state board of regents required to use plan “three” under section 331.206, subsection 2.
7. A supervisor representation plan adopted at a special election shall remain in effect for at least six years.
[C97, §417; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §5112; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §331.9; S81, §331.207; 81 Acts, ch 117, §206; 82 Acts, ch 1104, §31]
88 Acts, ch 1119, §37; 2002 Acts, ch 1134, §93, 94, 115; 2010 Acts, ch 1033, §43; 2016 Acts, ch 1011, §55; 2018 Acts, ch 1151, §2, 6; 2025 Acts, ch 15, §2, 9
Referred to in §331.206, 331.208, 331.209, 331.210, 331.261
Subsections 2, 5, and 6 amended