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115 <br />vote on all candidates in the years they represent their party in a general election. <br />Only registered voters of a particular party may vote on candidates in their party <br />in the primary election. <br />In creating Residential Districts, census data is the accepted standard for reliable <br />data to ensure equally- proportioned districts. To create a draft of potential <br />Residential Districts, Planning staff has utilized a demographic software program <br />to configure five districts of roughly -equal population using 1990 Census data. A <br />map of these districts and summary data on each district is provided as an <br />attachment. Using the 1990 Census, each district would ideally contain 18,770 <br />persons. The five potential districts shown are within 5% of the 18,770 mean, and <br />projections to the year 2001 show that each district would continue to contain <br />generally the same proportion of the population. <br />The limitation of Census geography is that the "building blocks" used to <br />configure districts are 1990 Census Block Groups. The Block Groups do not <br />conform to township lines or other political features, and instead use natural <br />features as boundaries. Because of sparse population in some rural areas, many <br />block groups are of substantial geographic size. As such, it is not currently <br />possible to split these Block Groups in the district configuration. <br />Legal issues related to Residential District election will be addressed by the <br />County Attorney. Costs of implementation would need to be further explored, <br />although costs are expected to be minimal since the only substantive change will <br />involve Board of Elections verification of candidate residence. <br />RECOMMENDATION: As the Board decides. <br />