Preparing for Redistricting
Every ten years states and local governments must prepare to rebalance the population in the districts that they elect their governing bodies from. This includes congressional districts, both chambers of the legislature, and any local governing bodies that elect members from districts (as opposed to at-large).
Preparing for redistricting has its challenges. It is a process that normally occurs only once every ten years and involves many disciplines such including GIS technology, law, and database management.
Assessing the Legal Environment: One of the first steps for any state or local jurisdiction preparing to redistrict is to make a thorough review of the state, federal and any local laws that may apply to redistricting. This step is important because much of the law affecting redistricting is interpreted by the Supreme Court, lower federal district courts and state courts. Significant federal legal developments have occurred in each decade since redistricting became a legal requirement in the mid-sixties. States often change statutory provisions as well, and state courts’ interpretations must be considered on an ongoing basis. Understandably, if redistricting only happens once every decade, many legal developments may have been made that would change how line-drawers operate going forward.
Staff, Support, Supplies and Equipment: After assessing the legal environment most jurisdictions must assess its personnel and equipment needs to support the entity that will be in charge of the line-drawing. In some cases, jurisdictions maintain a dedicated staff and resources for redistricting, usually embedded within a GIS or legislative data unit. Even when this is the case however, preparing for redistricting usually means updated software, hardware and additional staff at minimum.
Committee, Commission Member Selection: While some jurisdictions maintain a permanent legislative redistricting committee, most form a committee and appoint members each decade. In the case of independent commissions or other separate redistricting entities, these are formed at some time prior to line-drawing, which begins once the Census Bureau releases the census population data needed for redistricting. This usually happens in the Spring of the year after the decennial census.
Population Data and the Malapportionment Map: Once census population data is received by states it is used to view maps of the current districts. In many cases, these maps will understandably show large variations in population between individual districts – a condition that redistricting is designed to correct. This so-called “malapportioned” map shows just how impactful the population deviations are in current districts. Malapportionment can be measured in two ways: First, a malapportioned map will show how many districts are above or below the calculated ideal population; and Second, the map will show for any given district how its deviation from the ideal compares with the deviations in other districts.
Policy Development: It is common for the entity or entities responsible for redistricting to agree on specific policy goals prior to line-drawing. These policies do not carry the force of law, but in any subsequent litigation, they do serve as evidence of the bodies’ intent. If the entity does not follow its stated policy, this could be viewed by a court as evidence of improper line-drawing.
Public Hearings and Input: Most jurisdictions conduct public hearings during the redistricting process to receive input from the community. Many other jurisdictions go further, and host websites that allow the public to use GIS software online to submit their own map proposals for consideration. Even without public access software on government websites, there are easily available public software options that allow the public to create and submit proposed maps to those responsible for redistricting.
Preparing for redistricting can be challenging given that it does not happen regularly. Many jurisdictions, especially smaller local ones, have trouble maintaining the institutional knowledge needed to conduct redistricting competently since it is common that individuals who worked on it in one decade, are no longer employed with the jurisdiction. One municipal employee likened the task to “reinventing the wheel,” except you have to do it with ten years’ worth of product and material updates.
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