By Jennifer Williams
November 22, 2025
At the September 17, 2025 Miami County Commission Study Session, the commissioners discussed that they were tasked by the State to redistrict because some district sizes are not in compliance; however, County Administrator, Shane Krull, claimed he had no luck getting the precinct data from the State.
They tasked commissioner Jene Vickrey to look into the info since he was once a State representative.
I did some research with State employees and members of the GOP Third Congressional District executive team, and learned about a popular and highly-acclaimed, bi-partisan free software, Dave’s Redistricting App, that uses the most recent census data – with population available by every precinct.
On September 19th I provided to both Commissioner Vaughan and the Clerk, Laura Epp, a link to the redistricting software program, with a map of the current Miami County districts.
The app is set up in a way that the populations of the current districts are shown, with the percent variance of legal compliance. Then precincts can be added and removed from each new potential district, in order to see the population spread, to decide what new configuration of districts makes it the most even population amongst the five districts.
No outside advisors would be required because this is something that commissioners can do themselves, for free.
It’s unclear what happened behind-the-scenes between the September 17th and October 15th Study Sessions (8:44 minute mark), but at the latter meeting, Administrator Krull claimed he still did not have precinct data.
Commissioner Pretz requested commission consensus to give the County Administrator and Clerk permission to find a company who could provide the data.
Administrator Krull suggested he look at the recent RFP (request for bid proposals) sent out by Johnson County for their redistricting, in order to get names of firms who responded to that request.
I went and spoke at the public comment time the following week, at the October 22nd Commission meeting (3 minute mark), and informed the other commissioners about the software app I had shared, requesting the decision stay within the county and not involving outsiders who could potentially provide biased data for an ulterior agenda.
At the November 19, 2025 Commission Study Session (42:25 mark) a contract (click to view) was presented to the commissioners, and it was revealed that the company Johnson County used is Haystaq DNA.
There was no discussion about other companies who may have provided bids to Johnson County nor why the County Administrator and Clerk were recommending this company out of any who may have submitted a bid to Johnson County.
The Haystaq proposal had a rushed timeline in order to meet the County’s requested January 01, 2026 deadline. This timeline required the Commissioners sign to authorize the project the same day as the meeting (not the first rushed decision the commissioners were forced to make, as they were recently also put in a bind by the County Administrator to make a rushed decision for workforce development.) There would also be the kickoff meeting two days later, with only the Clerk and the County Administrator attending.
The proposal had a cost of $18,750, plus potential additional hourly wages and an optional $1,000 plus travel, per meeting, for their employees to present in-person at a Miami County meeting. Otherwise, online options are available for remote meetings to present data as part of the contract bid.
Look closely at the software that they are saying is no charge… They are assuming their usage of DRA which is Dave’s Redistricting App, the free software I provided!
They are using the exact same free data I provided and charging us $18,750 to draw maps!
They are not charging us for the data, they are charging us for their labor! This is in direct opposition to what the Clerk and the County Administrator are claiming.
The “inaccurate data” claim by the clerk, and the “no precinct level data” claim by the County Administrator are false!
The company they are hiring is using the same DRA data the clerk and Administrator claim to be inaccurate and incomplete; yet they are promoting this company as being an acceptable solution.
Commissioner Vaughan brought this issue up in the November 19th study session, asking why the County would pay Haystaq if they are using the same free software already provided by a resident to the County.
Administrator Krull claimed DRA did not have precinct level data (it does.)
Clerk Epp claimed her concerns with the DRA app is “they are not a certified GIS software for legal redistricting.”
To be clear here, there appears to be no official legal redistricting software as would be implied by that statement. A web search on the legality of certified softwares produce the following:
Commissioner Vaughan responded to the Clerk’s claim about Dave’s Redistricting and stated that’s what Haystaq is using.
Administrator Krull jumped in and said they are using it for lines and boundaries but they referenced other groups to get precinct level data from. He claimed the map I provided did not have precinct level data (it does.)
Epp went on to say her “homework represented that it was used for bigger larger areas but not when it comes down to smaller county and precinct levels does it have that kind of information.” She went on to say, “It uses the US official census bureau data, but limitations is that it is not a certified GIS software for legal redistricting, it lacks precision and boundary alignments, cannot generate official shape files or data formats often required by our County GIS systems, and there’s no legal validation or auditing for compliance for state redistricting statutes. And when we were going back and comparing numbers, the numbers were not matching to what we certified back in 2021.”
This is in opposition to reviews of the DRA data, as shown in screenshots below, that proves the free app has all the data necessary to do the job efficiently and accurately.
Administrator Krull brought up page 5 of the Haystaq proposal, as if it supported his position, however, it only tends to reiterate the use of DRA.
Page 5 of the Haystaq proposal states, “Haystaq will be using DRA (Dave’s Redistricting App), a free
yet powerful software tool that was used to create tens of thousands maps during the 2021 redistricting cycle. In the past, we have used a variety of licensed redistricting software packages, as well as DRA. We feel that DRA will not only get the job done but save the city money. Furthermore Haystaq’s has created internal Python code that will be used for this project. Among the other data that will be used is Census TIGER/Line data showing boundaries and PL 94-171 redistricting files, which were released in September, 2021. Additionally we would pull in Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) data from the American Communities Survey (ACS). If desired, Haystaq can work with population projections, either those provided by the county or from sources such as the Redistricting Data Hub (RDH). Haystaq will work with the city’s GIS department to get the current city boundaries file. These usually come in the form of a shape (.shp) file and can easily be ingested into the redistricting software.”
What exactly is the internal python code created by this company and how is it going to affect the outcome of the data provided to the commissioners?
If it’s not about the data, as we can see with the contract that will be using the exact same data they can get on their own for free, then what is the real purpose of hiring an outside firm to draw the new proposed districts for us?
Who is Haystaq DNA?
A Washington D.C. based company, their website brags about their success on the Obama and Bernie Sanders campaigns.
Their other clients include Redistricting for the State of California, Redistricting for the State of Virginia, Southern Poverty Law Center, Delaware Coalition of Gun Violence, NextGen Climate America, (Kamala) Harris Victory Fund and Our Revolution – a far-left organization that brags about their successful “No Kings” rallies and their recent New York City mayor race victory.
What’s also concerning is their claim of “making Big data and Analytics work for you” “to move the needle.”
What needle would a far-left organization hope to move in Conservative Miami County?
That is the question everyone should be asking!
I do not believe our Commissioners had any idea who this firm really is.
As we often see, this is a case of the staff steering the ship from the administrative side, while well-meaning commissioners trust their recommendations to be true and unbiased, free of staff’s own personal bureaucratic agenda, or worse yet the regional agenda that they have frequently been exposed promoting in the past few years.
From bringing the Soros-funded Welcoming America into the County, to writing the check to authorize Placer Ai to spy on our citizens, the Miami County Administrator frequently promotes questionable projects that are in opposition to Miami County’s rural, Conservative values.
Our Commissioners need non-biased, accurate information from staff in order to make the best possible decisions for residents, insuring the future of Miami County continues to align with our conservative values – with no district gerrymandering by leftist organizations with a plan to urbanize and conquer the county.
We have been “robbed” enough. Taxpayers should not be funding their own potential demise.
Contact your commissioners today and request they reconsider this decision, cancel the contract, and save taxpayer money by either using the free Dave’s Redistricting App to draw their own new districts without outside influence or demanding access to the State’s Esri ArcGIS file subscription.
If the county is an agent of the State for state business, then they should be considered an agency with access to the subscription software already paid for by the State of Kansas
Additional data: Follow the Money
Campaign contributions by the company, President and CEO
Payments made by Democratic campaigns to Haystaq DNA
