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BPOU stands for Basic Political Operating Unit. What that really means though, is that a BPOU is the lowest level of political organization. In rural areas, a BPOU may be an entire county. However, in urban areas, the BPOU encompasses only a particular Senate District or even a single House District.
The BPOU operates as a fairly independent group. It has it's own leadership, membership, budget, etc. Each BPOU endorses members during election years at it's caucuses. And during off-election years holds conventions to elect officers and other business.
However, a BPOU is also part of hierarchy. Unless, the BPOU is a House District, it will have House Districts within it. Each House District is representated in the state legislature by a Representative. In addition, each BPOU encompasses quite a few precincts. These precincts vary in size but are used to help organize votes and voting locations on Election Day.
A BPOU may contain an entire city, or only part of one. It may contain several cities, orpart of several. A BPOU may encompasses an entiry county, or only part of one. It may also contain parts of several counties as well.
Let's take the case of SD45 since it is unique in that it is partly in CD3 and partly in CD5. Senate District 45, which comprises House Districts 45A and 45B. While SD45 is entirely within Hennepin County, it includes the cities of Crystal, New Hope, Robbinsdale, and parts of Plymouth and Golden Valley. Each of these cities are in turn broken down to precincts represented by votting or polling locations at churches, schools and public buildings.
To make this even more confusing, the boundaries of a BPOU can change when the legislature does it's redistricting every ten years and that is coming up very soon in 2010.
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