Iowa’s second round of redistricting maps came out on Thursday, giving lawmakers one week to review the proposal before convening for a special session.

This is the second proposal from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. Republican lawmakers in early October voted against the LSA’s first proposal, arguing that the districts could be more compact and have more evenly balanced populations.

If legislators vote against this set of maps, the LSA will create a third and final proposal. Only after rejecting that third proposal would legislators be allowed to directly edit the maps, a process that Democrats warn could lead to gerrymandering.

But several steps and several weeks remain before that could happen. Here’s where the process stands now.

The chambers of the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House of Representatives are silent after a busy 2021 session.

Lawmakers teed up bills that addressed a wide assortment of problems, real or imagined.

They decided against an increase in tax revenues for the three state universities. They took away authority of local governments to impose face-mask requirements to combat current or future diseases. They made significant changes in the process for creating charter schools, which will operate with state tax money but will not face many requirements public K-12 schools must follow.

And they rewrote large portions of Iowa’s election laws. There are new restrictions on the use of absentee ballots. Election Day voting hours have been shortened by one hour.

But lawmakers went home without tackling a big inconsistency in how election recounts are conducted.

Iowa’s second round of redistricting maps came out on Thursday, giving lawmakers one week to review the proposal before convening for a special session.

This is the second proposal from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Services Agency. Republican lawmakers in early October voted against the LSA’s first proposal, arguing that the districts could be more compact and have more evenly balanced populations.

If legislators vote against this set of maps, the LSA will create a third and final proposal. Only after rejecting that third proposal would legislators be allowed to directly edit the maps, a process that Democrats warn could lead to gerrymandering.

But several steps and several weeks remain before that could happen. Here’s where the process stands now.

The chambers of the Iowa Senate and the Iowa House of Representatives are silent after a busy 2021 session.

Lawmakers teed up bills that addressed a wide assortment of problems, real or imagined.

They decided against an increase in tax revenues for the three state universities. They took away authority of local governments to impose face-mask requirements to combat current or future diseases. They made significant changes in the process for creating charter schools, which will operate with state tax money but will not face many requirements public K-12 schools must follow.

And they rewrote large portions of Iowa’s election laws. There are new restrictions on the use of absentee ballots. Election Day voting hours have been shortened by one hour.

But lawmakers went home without tackling a big inconsistency in how election recounts are conducted.