Prior to 1977 there were three county commissioners in Douglas County. One commissioner was from Lake Tahoe and two were from the valley portion of Douglas County. At the general election in 1974 the registered voters in Douglas County voted to increase the Board of County Commissioners from three to five and voted to continue having the County Commissioners elected at-large. At the general election in 1976 the current number of five commissioners were officially seated. The districts at that time designated two commissioners from the Tahoe Basin (Douglas County) and three commissioners from the Carson Valley including the Topaz area. This designation continued until the 1990 census.
In 1991 (based on the 1990 census numbers) the Board of County Commissioners reviewed two options for their districts. One district proposed to continue with the possibility of having two commissioners from Lake Tahoe and three from the valley. That proposal required that both the Tahoe districts would include some of the valley population. The other proposal would decrease the two Tahoe commissioners to only one commissioner but would guarantee, for 10 years, one whole district solely at Lake Tahoe. That proposal required four commissioners to reside in the valley. After public input, the decision was made to have one commissioner from Tahoe and four from the valley. Thus guaranteeing the residents at Tahoe their district (District 4) would require the commissioner to reside at Tahoe. All five commissioners are required to reside within their district but all five are elected at-large.
At the 1996 general election the registered voters in Douglas County were again asked, through a ballot questions, if they wished to continue electing the county commissioners at-large. A significant majority of voters voted to continue the same practice of electing the commissioners at-large.
After receiving the 2000 census numbers, it was no longer possible to retain one district that was solely inclusive of the Tahoe Basin. During this process of redistricting, Douglas County’s District 4 started to slowly trickle down into the valley and became even larger with the 2010 census numbers.