The U.S. Census Bureau’s Voting District Project (VTDP) will give state liaisons the opportunity to submit and verify their voting districts, the Bureau’s generic term for precincts, election districts, wards, and similar areas, for inclusion in the 2030 Census Redistricting Data products. Program submissions come only from the official state liaison, so local election and GIS offices take part by being designated as technical liaisons or by routing their data through the liaison. The quality of a state’s submission depends on groundwork done locally, and the most useful steps can be taken well before the cycle opens in early 2028. Below is a short checklist to prepare:
Inventory and update precinct boundary files, confirming they are current, complete, and reflect the precincts the office actually administers.
Check those boundaries against census blocks. Where a precinct boundary does not follow a block edge, record the physical feature it follows, a power line, property line, or stream, so the state can flag it while block boundary suggestions remain open.
Contact the state’s official liaison now to ask about technical liaison designation and how local data should be routed.
Track the calendar: Block boundary work remains possible at distinct points within the VTDP cycles: liaisons may continue to make block boundary suggestions during the initial update cycle in early 2028 and again during the first verification cycle in early 2029.
Front-loading this work pays off in the data itself. The Census Bureau builds voting districts from whole census blocks, and states indicate whether each submitted voting district is “actual” or “pseudo,” with pseudo marking those that were approximated. Where local precinct boundaries already align with census blocks, fewer voting districts need approximating, and the resulting precinct-level counts more closely match the precincts each office actually administers. The Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office can be reached at rdo@census.gov or 301-763-4039. State legislative nonpartisan research offices, State Data Centers, and secretary of state offices are other starting points, as states differ in where the liaison role sits.
For broader guidance on preparing precinct and district records, including example checklists, see the U.S. Election Assistance Commission’s Local Election Officials’ Guide to Redistricting.
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