By: Max Steigauf / Assistant News Director

Stearns County has finalized the new districts for the upcoming 2022 primary and general elections.

The redistricting process is the redrawing of election boundaries to meet requirements and ensure equal representation after the 2020 census.

County Auditor-Treasurer Randy Schreifels reports the new congressional and legislative district map was chosen from nine original plans for county review after hearing public feedback.

Boundaries needed to be compact and contiguous as well as the population between districts couldn’t vary more than 10%. Citizens were able to provide input through the Stearns county website or during a public input session held in February and public hearing in April.

The new districts has under a 5% population variance.