The U.S. Census Bureau announced today the target date for delivering redistricting data to the states; the final component needed to redraw congressional and legislative lines. The relevant excerpts from the bureau’s official blog are below. The press release is here.
James Whitehorne, Chief of the Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office, U.S. Census Bureau:
If this were a typical decade, we would be on the verge of delivering the first round of redistricting data from the 2020 Census. Our original plan was to deliver the data in state groupings starting Feb. 18, 2021 and finishing by March 31, 2021.
However, COVID-19 delayed census operations significantly. Consistent with previous census, we are focusing first on our constitutional obligation to deliver the state population counts for apportionment to the President. As we announced last week, the deadline for this work is April 30, 2021. This focus on meeting our constitutional obligation has delayed some of the processing activities necessary to generate the redistricting counts. We expect to deliver the redistricting data to the states and the public by Sept. 30, 2021.
Now that we have finalized the schedule for completing the apportionment counts (by April 30), we have been able to finalize a schedule for the redistricting data.
Delivering by September 30
This data delivery will be a single national delivery, rather than our originally-planned staggered delivery of redistricting data.
This national delivery allows us to:
- Ensure we are delivering the high-quality fit-for-use data products the states need for redistricting.
- Complete delivery to all states several weeks earlier than the last states would have otherwise received it.
- Better manage the production process.
We are acutely aware of the difficulties that this delayed delivery of the redistricting data will cause some states. Some states have statutory or even state constitutional deadlines and processes that they will have to address due to this delay.
The decision to have a single national delivery ensures that the Census Bureau can provide accurate, high quality, and fit-for-use data in the least total amount of time to all states.
Following our thorough and complete process provides the best assurance to the states that these data meet the quality standards they expect and require to underpin their important decisions.
