Redistricting – Page 27

NY Federal Court Enjoins Presidential Order to Remove Illegal Immigrants from Apportionment Count

By Michelle DavisSep 11, 2020

A federal court panel is the first to decide on whether the president's memorandum directing the U.S. Census Bureau to report the estimated number of “aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status” is unlawful. The memo's stated purpose is to subtract this estimate from the total population in each state - the number that is historically used to apportion congressional seats among the states. Read the opinion here. Officials Enjoined: The court enjoined all of the officials who were party to the lawsuit from reporting the estimate in the official apportionment report. The court did acknowledge, however, that…

Census Law, LATEST, LAW, Redistrictingapportionment, census, census 2020, lawindepth, new york, U.S. Census Bureau

Video: California Commission Holds First Meeting. Discusses Census Delays and Accuracy

By Michelle DavisSep 09, 2020

The 2020 California Citizens Redistricting Commission has recently formed and sworn in all 14 of its members. Below is a clip from the first full meeting on August 26th. The entire virtual meeting is over five hours long with mostly procedural issues discussed in the first several hours. The clip below is the final 90 minutes, in which commission members were briefed on possible census delays, and a recent court decision extending the commission's deadlines for maps. Members also discussed whether to compose an amicus brief or letter of support in a recent lawsuit against the Census Bureau's plan to…

NEWS, Official Redistricting Entities, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting Commissions, VIDEOCalifornia, commission, States

What Does Differential Privacy in Census Data Mean for the Task of Redistricting?

By Michelle DavisSep 08, 2020

The law requires that any identifying information you give the Census Bureau be kept confidential for 75 yrs, but simply removing your information from what is published is no longer enough. Big data and powerful computing technology now allow almost anyone to "reconstruct" the seemingly anonymized information. That means it is increasingly possible to identify who you are, where you live, and other information from the census results. Here's how the Census Bureau plans to combat that. New for the 2020 census, the U.S. Census Bureau will be using a process called differential privacy to inject "statistical noise" into the…

Census Data and Geography, FEATURES, Redistricting, Redistricting PrepAnalysis, census, census 2020, dataindepth, differential privacy, U.S. Census Bureau

Oregon Redistricting Commission Ballot Measure Efforts TimeOut

By Michelle DavisSep 04, 2020

At least one news outlet has described the failed Oregon redistricting reform ballot initiative as a "dramatic legal saga." By all accounts, they would be correct. You can read a detailed account from Oregon Public Broadcasting here and here. Read below for a quick summary. a group wishing to put a question on the November ballot to approve a nonpartisan redistricting commission for Oregon districts failed to obtain the 155,000 signatures needed.the group successfully argued in a federal district court that the pandemic unfairly restricted signature-gathering efforts. The court ultimately allowed a lower signature requirement of 59,000.the state Attorney General…

NEWS, Redistricting, REFORM, State Lawscommission, legal, lpstatelaw, Oregon, reform, States

Watch: Pennsylvania Redistricting Reform Town Hall Discusses Anti-Gerrymandering Legislation

By Michelle DavisSep 03, 2020

Interested in Pennsylvania redistricting reform? Watch this recent town hall organized by reform group Fair Districts PA to discuss the Legislative and Congressional Redistricting Act (LACRA), which has been introduced in both houses of the state legislature. Participants include members of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project team who give insight into mapping criteria and metrics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzsoZ9AnAXk

NEWS, Redistricting, REFORM, VIDEOlegal, PA, Pennsylvania, reform

Video: Gerrymandering and Reform Explained in 13 Minutes

By Michelle DavisSep 01, 2020

Need a quick primer on gerrymandering and reform? This just-released video produced by CNBC reviews the entire redistricting landscape regarding gerrymandering and reform efforts over the past two decades. All in just 13 minutes. While it makes the case for reform, it does a swell job at describing many topics. Watch it for a succinct description and review of various hot button issues in redistricting including partisan gerrymandering, redistricting commissions, the Voting Rights Act, prison gerrymandering, census data and citizenship. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s6erd5MbEY&feature=youtu.be

FEATURES, LATEST, Race in Redistricting, Redistricting, Redistricting Gerrymanders, Redistricting Race Rules, REFORM, VIDEOBASICS, gerrymandering, prisoner reallocation, prisoners, reform

Second Court Rewords Missouri Redistricting Ballot Amendment Language

By Michelle DavisSep 01, 2020

A county circuit court judge ruled earlier last month that the wording of a ballot measure authored by the Republican legislature was “misleading” in an effort to “entice” voters into repealing an anti-gerrymandering reform measure approved by voters in 2018. This week a Missouri Appeals Court affirmed the lower court ruling that the original ballot language was misleading but it reworded the circuit court’s rewrite as well. You can read all three versions below. The circuit court replaced the ballot summary language for Amendment 3 to make clear that if the measure is approved, it would reverse the 2018 measure.The…

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Understanding the 2020 Census Disclosure Avoidance Policy. A.K.A. “Differential Privacy”

By Michelle DavisSep 01, 2020

The Census Bureau is mandated by the U.S. constitution to complete a count of the population every decade. Few realize however, that Title 13, Sec. 9 of the U.S. Code also requires the Bureau to "keep personally identifiable information confidential for 72 years." With the growth of Big Data, this privacy mandate has become a much more complicated task, thanks to "database reconstruction," a method of partially reconstructing a private dataset from public aggregate information. Consider the well-known example below of how one data scientist obtained former Governor William Weld's medical history from aggregate data released to the Massachusetts Group…

Census Data and Geography, FEATURES, Redistricting, Redistricting Prep, VIDEOcensus, census 2020, dataindepth, differential privacy, U.S. Census Bureau

Basics: California Citizens Redistricting Commission Selection Process

By Michelle DavisSep 01, 2020

The California Citizen's Redistricting Commission (CRC) selected its final members for its 14-member body on August 7. CRC will redraw the lines for California's Congressional, State Senate, State Assembly, and State Board of Equalization districts, based on information gathered during the 2020 census. The CRC must draw the districts in conformity with strict, nonpartisan rules designed to create districts of relatively equal population. The CRC's selection process is a multi-layered one conducted by the State Auditor's Office. It designed to be a mostly nonpartisan, and partly random process in which eight members are selected initially. Those initial eight members must agree on…

Official Redistricting Entities, Redistricting, Redistricting CommissionsBASICS, California, commission, crc

A “Listen” to the Seedy Underbelly of Redistricting

By Michelle DavisOct 02, 2019

In this Slate article published today, portions of a leaked audio recording of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s 2019 annual meeting in Austin, TX reveals the "bloodsport" that is redistricting. Presenters at this meeting reveal tactics to use for the courtroom, the media, political opponents and every other aspect of the "sport." Read more on Slate.com Discussing the inevitability of Litigation. (Slate.com, How to Get Away with Gerrymandering, Oct. 02, 2019)

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