Commissioner District Boundary Changes
Let us know your thoughts by Thursday, Nov. 9, on the commissioner district boundary updates.
Per state law, county commissioner districts must be updated every 10 years after each census. When creating commissioner districts, state law requires that they be as even in population and area as possible.
Missoula County has received requests in the past to reshape the commissioner districts to reflect a bullseye pattern to have commissioners represent urban, semi-urban and rural districts. This would not meet the legal requirement though, since each district must be as equal in population and geographic size as possible.
To ensure accuracy when drawing the new boundaries, Missoula County used a mapping tool that has population data from the census to draw the commissioner district boundary lines.
Based off this tool, the County proposes these changes to the commissioner districts:
The Missoula County commissioners are elected at-large, not by their districts. State law requires that a candidate for county commissioner be a registered voter and resident of the district for two years to file to run for office.
The County is introducing these commissioner district boundary changes alongside the process of establishing precincts and polling locations to ensure they will all be effect for the candidate filing period for the 2024 election cycle.
The commissioners opened the hearing on commissioner district boundary changes at their public meeting on Sept. 7, and make their final decision at the public meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 9. This meeting will be held in the Sophie Moiese Room of the Missoula County Courthouse annex. You can also join virtually via Microsoft Teams. Find the meeting agenda and link to join at http://missoula.co/bccmeetings. The agenda will be published the Friday before the meeting.
