Redistricting splits Perkins County

Take a look at Perkins County on the accompanying map of the new districts for the Nebraska Legislature. 

That’s right—Perkins County gets split up!

As of Tuesday, 44th District Sen. Dan Hughes of Venango said it looks like those boundaries are going to stick. 

The Legislature remains in special session this week to put the final touches on redistricting of the state required every 10 years after a census. 

The original redistricting map has Perkins County split between Districts 44 and 42. Presently, all of Perkins County is in District 44.

When Hughes left Lincoln  last week, the Redistricting Committee indicated they would try to keep all of Perkins County  together in District 44. 

However, when Hughes returned to Lincoln Monday afternoon, he learned Perkins County would be split up into two different districts. 

The determination is made strictly on population in the respective districts. 

Based on the state’s population of 1.961 million divided by 49 legislative districts, the average population for each district is 40,031. 

Redistricting requires that each legislative district be within 5% above or below that benchmark. 

That allows population in each district to range from 38,029 to 42,032 to provide equal representation across the state.

Hughes said that when all of Perkins County was put back in District 44, the population was greater than the allowable 5% deviation. 

As a result, Perkins County is being split, with the southwest part of the county, including Grant and Venango, staying in the 44th and the remainder going to the 42nd.

Sen. Mike Groene of North Platte serves District 42. So when the Legislature convenes in 2022, three-fourths of Perkins County will be represented by Groene. 

Like Hughes, he is term-limited out so voters will elect new senators for both District 44 and 42.

Hughes noted the tradition has been not to redistrict a current senator out of his or her district. That led to keeping a portion of Perkins County in District 44. 

Boundary change expected

After the Census population counts came out for each district, Hughes knew the 44th District would be redrawn in the process. 

With 40,031 as the population benchmark, the 2020 population in the current 44th District stood at 34,700, or 5,331 less than the 40,031 benchmark. 

That deviation rate was more than 13% so it was inevitable that the district would be redrawn. 

District 44 was not alone when it came to redistricting. With most of the state’s growth in the eastern end of the state, it meant the five western districts in the state—42, 43, 44, 47 and 48—would all have to get larger to meet the benchmark range. 

From west to east, District 48 went from just Scotts Bluff County to including Banner and Kimball Counties. 

In District 47, all of Box Butte County, which includes Alliance,  and Grant County were added to the district. 

In District 44,  Dawson County was added but lost three quarters of Perkins County. 

District 43 added Custer, Garfield and Boyd Counties while losing McPherson  and Logan Counties along with the Alliance portion of Box Butte. 

District 42 added Hooker, Thomas, McPherson and Logan Counties to Lincoln County. 

The Legislature are also redrawing district maps for the Supreme Court, Board of Education, Board of Regents, Public Service Commission and Congress.