Sibley, Iowa — The citizens of Osceola County have decided to keep the way county supervisors are elected the same as it has been.
A petition was circulated in the county and was filed June 1st. That meant that the county had to hold an election to see if people wanted to change the current situation.
The way it has been is that supervisors must reside in their own district and are elected by the citizens in that district. The districts must have as close to equal population as possible. That’s what’s called “Plan 3.” “Plan 1” would abolish the districts and just elect supervisors at large, with no regard to where they lived, so long as it is in the county. “Plan 2” would keep the districts and the requirement that supervisors live in them, but every district’s supervisor would be elected at-large, by all county residents.
Osceola County moved from plan 2 to plan 3 a little over a decade ago. It is said that those who filed the petition favored a switch back to plan 2.
According to unofficial information from the Osceola County Auditor’s office:
997 people voted in the election on Tuesday, August 1st.
20 people, or 2.01% voted for Plan 1.
354 people, or 35.51% voted for Plan 2.
623 people, or 62.49% voted to keep Plan 3.
So, Osceola County will continue to elect supervisors using Plan 3.
