Every ten years, after the US Census, Lake County, Illinois uses a quirky process to determine term lengths for its county board members.
According to Medium, they call for '21 balls,' 'inscribed with the number of each County Board District,' and an 'opaque container.'
After redrawing district boundaries, the Chief Judge of the 19th Judicial Circuit must randomly choose three groups of seven districts each from the 21 total districts.
Each group corresponds to a different schedule for district representatives’ term lengths in the next ten years: 2–4–2, 4–2–4, or 2–4–4-year consecutive terms.
This game of electoral Bingo is Lake County’s whimsical way of reconciling four-year terms with ten-year redistricting cycles.
