The city council candidate filing deadline has passed, and there are three candidates for the one District A seat, where I am running. This triggers a primary election on October 10, 2023.

There are three Iowa City city council districts: A, B, and C. The districts shifted some in early 2022, after the 2020 census. Districts need to be contiguous, relatively compact, and balanced by population. Options for district boundaries were presented by the County Auditor and selected by city council.

District A now encompasses the nearly all of the South District and much of the west side of Iowa City. District B is most of the east side. District C includes downtown, the Peninsula, the near west side, and the Northside Neighborhood. The districts serve the purpose of spreading out candidates, geographically.

Only residents of District A will vote in the primary for this seat. Who lives in District A? Anyone in voting precincts 2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 13, 26, 27. Don’t know your precinct? Here’s a precinct lookup map!

A strange thing about Iowa City’s districts: after the primary, every voter in Iowa City votes on all of the district seats. So, while a candidate can run in a district, the voters, at large, will select the winner in a contested district election. This makes every councilor accountable to all parts of the city, even if that councilor holds a district seat.

This election cycle, there are four city council seats up for election. Two are at-large, one for District A, and one for District C.

Take a look at this map and please help spread the word that there will be an election on October 10 and November 7 this year. See you at the polls, south- and west-side Iowa City!