Redistricting

The BBSP Deadline Passed. Now What? A Guide for Local Officials

By EditorJul 18, 20260 Comments

The Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP) exists so that states can identify non-standard features often used as electoral boundaries (power lines, property lines, or streams) that could serve alongside more traditional features (such as street centerlines) as census tabulation block boundaries. States, through their official liaisons, may also identify features that are not desirable as block boundaries. In addition, legal boundaries reviewed in coordination with the annual Boundary and Annexation Survey also become census tabulation block boundaries. Where no suggestions are submitted, local precinct boundaries following features the Bureau does not already carry are unlikely to appear as census block…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBBSP, dataindepth, local-admin, U.S. Census Bureau

The Boundary Annexation Survey (BAS) Submission Checklist for Local Governments

By EditorJul 14, 20260 Comments

The Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) is the Census Bureau's annual check-in with local government on where its legal boundaries actually are. Each year the Bureau contacts federally recognized American Indian areas, counties and county equivalents, incorporated places, and minor civil divisions, asking each to confirm that the Bureau has the correct boundary, name, and status for that government. The public and data users rely on the annual BAS boundaries as the official federal representation of boundaries for legal governments. The Census Bureau maintains this data in its MAF/TIGER System and publishes the results through the annual TIGER/Line release. For…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBAS, dataindepth, local-admin, U.S. Census Bureau

8th Circuit Reverses Its Ruling on Native American Minority District Post Callais

By EditorJul 11, 20260 Comments

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled Tuesday, July 7, to reverse a 2023 legal victory by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians and the Spirit Lake Nation, in which a federal district court judge had concluded that North Dakota's state legislative map unlawfully diluted Native American voting strength in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. The case has a long procedural history. In 2023, the U.S. District Court sided with the tribes and ordered a remedial map, which was used in the 2024 elections, resulting in three tribal members being elected to…

RedistrictingLatest, lawindepth, News, North Dakota, Voting Rights Act

The Battle Over Colorado’s Congressional Map Will Be Decided by Voters

By EditorJun 12, 2026

Colorado's redistricting story in the post-2020 era unfolds in two distinct chapters. The first covers the state's post-census redistricting process, conducted entirely by citizen commissions established by voters in 2018, and the legal challenges that followed. The second, still unfolding, covers the state's response to the nationwide mid-decade redistricting wars launched in 2025, which have drawn Colorado into a contested ballot measure fight that will ultimately be decided by voters in November 2026. Together, the two chapters illustrate both how Colorado's independent redistricting architecture has insulated it from the partisan map-drawing that has roiled other states and the limits of…

Colorado, Strategy and Politicscolorado, policyindepth

New York Lawmakers Approve Amendment Allowing Mid-Decade Redistricting and Partisan Map-Drawing

By EditorJun 09, 2026

The New York State Legislature passed a sweeping constitutional amendment on June 3, 2026 (S.10637-A/A.11553) that would significantly restructure how the state draws congressional and state legislative district lines. The amendment passed both chambers on party-line votes, with Democrats in the majority supporting it and Republicans unanimously opposed. Introduced jointly on June 1 by the Senate Majority Leader and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, the amendment amends Sections 4 and 5-b of Article III of the New York State Constitution and adds a new Section 5-c. Among its most significant provisions it: explicitly permits mid-decade congressional redistricting; replaces the supermajority threshold…

New York, State Lawsmid-decade redistricting, new york, policyindepth

BBSP vs. BAS: Two Census Programs, Two Crucial Jobs

By EditorJun 04, 2026

The Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) and the Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP) are often conflated; both involve local geography and the Census Bureau, but they do different jobs. BAS is the Bureau's annual survey to keep the legal boundaries and names of governments current, such as city limits, county lines, township boundaries, and tribal areas. BBSP is a once-a-decade phase of the Redistricting Data Program in which a state suggests which features the Bureau should use as statistical census tabulation block (census block) boundaries. The other differences follow from that split. BAS runs every year, and each eligible government…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBAS, BBSP, dataindepth, local-admin, U.S. Census Bureau

Utah’s Court-Ordered Redistricting: Where Things Stand

By EditorMay 22, 2026

The Utah congressional map controversy continues into 2026. On November 10, 2025, a state trial court invalidated the Utah legislature's congressional map on the grounds that it violated the anti-partisan gerrymandering rules enacted under Proposition 4, which voters approved seven years ago. The court adopted a remedial map submitted by the plaintiffs in the case (The Utah League of Women Voters and the Mormon Women for Ethical Government) to be used in the 2026 mid-term election. That map created three Republican-leaning districts and one Democratic-leaning district centered on Salt Lake County. In response, the Utah Legislature launched an aggressive multi-front…

State Laws, Utahmid-decade redistricting, policyindepth, Utah

From 1990 to 2030: A Short History of the Census Block-Boundary Suggestion Project

By EditorMay 22, 2026

The Block Boundary Suggestion Project (BBSP) is now in its fourth decade. It began as part of the Census Bureau's first nationwide Redistricting Data Program for the 1990 Census, following a 1984 pilot test that yielded positive results, which led to its full implementation. While census blocks were first used in 1940, only for cities of 50,000 or more inhabitants and other governments that contracted for the work, they were first used nationwide in 1990. Along with the nationwide census block-numbering system, which gave states the small-area geography they needed to meet Voting Rights Act obligations and minimal-population-deviation districting standards, BBSP helped move redistricting…

DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local RedistrictingBBSP, dataindepth, localpage, U.S. Census Bureau

SCOTUS Reverses Mississippi Legislative Map Ruling

By EditorMay 18, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court, in a brief order Monday, reversed a lower court's ruling that determined Mississippi lawmakers unlawfully diluted Black voting strength when it redrew the state's legislative districts. The Supreme Court's decision to toss out the ruling in the Mississippi case, along with a similar ruling in North Dakota, is the latest order set off by the justices' 6-3 decision in Callais last month. Earlier this month, the high court similarly tossed a Voting Rights Act (VRA) ruling against Alabama's congressional map that had mandated the state have two majority-Black districts. The Callais ruling, along with subsequent orders…

Mississippi, Voting Rights Actcaseupdates, Latest, Mississippi

What Local Officials Need to Know about the Recent U.S. Supreme Court Voting Rights Act Decision

By EditorMay 15, 2026

Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 is the federal law that has most directly shaped how local governments draw their district maps and structure their elections. It is a permanent, nationwide prohibition on any voting standard, practice, or procedure that results in the denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group. The Act applies to every level of government, including county commissions, city councils, school boards, and judicial districts. In practice, the law has been most often invoked at the local level.…

Redistricting, Voting Rights Actlocalpage