Demographics and politics make redistricting Minnesota complicated, but it’s based on a simple concept: one person, one vote, according to state lawmakers.

Redistricting involves redrawing legislative district boundaries to make all 134 House and 67 Senate districts have roughly the same number of people in them. Redistricting is required by the U.S. Constitution every 10 years following the census.

On Wednesday, Minnesota’s political parties argued for their plans to redraw the state’s political boundaries before a panel of the Minnesota Supreme Court.

The Special Redistricting Panel met Wednesday in St. Paul to hear arguments from attorneys for Democrats and Republicans, who have offered conflicting proposals for the once-per-decade process of adjusting congressional and legislative districts to reflect population changes. The Minnesota GOP plan would keep all eight of Minnesota’s members of Congress in their current districts. But the DFL’s plan would make significant changes.

The panel is expected to announce the state’s legislative boundaries Feb. 21.

Depending on the panel’s decision, the districts that include Borderland could be shifted, providing different representation.

District 6A, represented by Rep. David Dill, DFL-Crane Lake, could be shifted to include Koochiching County and Lake of the Woods counties because of a loss in population in those counties.

Northern Minnesota, according to District 3A Rep. Tom Anzelc, who now represents Borderland, could lose one senator and two representatives because of the population shift, while the Twin Cities metro suburban areas, which gained population, could gain a senator and two representatives.

Dill said population shifts in the state are what’s driving the redrawing of district lines. The loss of population in northern Minnesota is a trend that started about 20 years ago, said Dill.

Efficiencies in mining and logging and improvements in logging and mining equipment, among other factors, have contributed to the loss in population in northern Minnesota, said Dill.

As an example, he pointed to the fact that in the 1980s, taconite mills in northern Minnesota produced 58 million tons of pellets with 14,000 to 15,000 miners and associated jobs.

Today, about 40 million tons of pellets — or about two-thirds of the amount produced in the ‘80s — are being produced with 3,500 to 4,000 people.

Dill said his district lost about 3,400 people, while Anzelc’s district lost about 4,500 people, since the last census 10 years ago.

“The economy in northern Minnesota and in some instances the entire state, is driven by farming, timber, mining and tourism,” said Dill. “When any one or a combination thereof become less of an employer and producer, you begin to see the population shift.”

Dill said that shift in population is already creating difficulties as miners begin to retire and trained younger people are not living in the areas to replace the retirees. Many of the young people in the area have left northern Minnesota to seek jobs elsewhere, in many cases the Twin Cities area.

In addition, he said the loss of population in northern Minnesota is impacting school districts, which receive funding based on the number of students. He noted that several schools have closed and others have combined, in northern Minnesota, as a result of the loss of the student money.

The need to enlarge the northern Minnesota legislative boundaries to include more people will make for large geographic areas to represent, Dill said.

Dill said District 6A now covers 10,100 square miles — an area larger in size than six states.

Should his district be enlarged to include a part of Koochiching, Lake of the Woods and Duluth, it could span up to 15,000 square miles.

And while Dill said he’s friends with Anzelc and acknowledged Anzelc’s efforts to learn about and get to know the communities in District 3A, Dill said he could represent Koochiching and the International Falls area, as well as Lake of the Woods county.

“Personally, it would be a perfect fit for me,” Dill said. “I have family there, I go to church there, I was married there, I have been involved in every activity with Voyageurs National Park, from it’s establishment to its management. The issues are very similar because of logging and tourism and may be the same in Lake of the Woods County if that were assigned as part of my district.”

Anzelc said lawmakers and the public are very aware that northern Minnesota has lost population over the last 20 years.

And, he said, redistricting could pit incumbent legislators against one another in the November elections.

“All of us incumbents, and other citizens interested in running for one of these elected offices, are patiently waiting to see what the new lines will look like,” said Anzelc.