Alaska Redistricting Board Adopts Proposed Redistricting Plans

By EditorSep 10, 2021

Press Release: Sept. 9 2021 For Immediate Release: September 9, 2021 ANCHORAGE – Today the Alaska Redistricting Board adopted two proposed redistricting plansin accordance with Alaska Constitution Article VI Section 10, which requires adoption of at leastone proposed plan within thirty days after the official reporting of the decennial census of theUnited States. The census data was received on August 12, 2021.“We have fulfilled our constitutional obligation and I’m pleased to begin the process of hearingfrom the public over the next 60 days as we develop our final plan,” said Board Member NicoleBorromeo. The Board will be meeting on Friday,…

Enacting a Redistricting Map, NEWS, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting CommissionsAlaska, enacting, IN-DEPTH, policyindepth, STATENEWS

VA State Redistricting Commission Divided on Map Drawing Approach

By EditorAug 06, 2021

The Virginia Redistricting Commission was advised its lawyers to revise existing maps rather than start from scratch, due to time and resources constraints. Read the full wvtf.org story. Listen to audio excerpts from the commission meeting below. Full commission meeting video is available on the Virginia state almanac page. Virginia Public Radio : WVTF (Aug 4, 2021)

NEWS, Official Redistricting Entities, POLICY and PRACTICE, Redistricting, Redistricting Commissions, Redistricting FunctionsEntities, IN-DEPTH, STATENEWS, Virginia

Recent Census Data Developments Call into Question its Suitability for Redistricting

By EditorAug 01, 2021

In the span of just a few days and just weeks before official census redistricting data is scheduled to be released, the Census Bureau reveals two rather startling revelations about the data. "Fuzzy Blocks" First, the Acting Census Director Ron Jarmin warned in the Director's Blog that the information in individual census blocks - the smallest and most detailed unit of data - will appear "fuzzy" and at times nonsensical due to the Bureau's application of privacy measures, and thus should not be used for building redistricting maps. Blocks are often used as the basic building blocks of redistricting maps…

Census Data and Geography, DATA and TECHNOLOGY, LATEST, NEWS, Redistricting, Redistricting Functions, Redistricting Prepcensus, census 2020, dataindepth, differential privacy, IN-DEPTH, national, redistprep, U.S. Census Bureau

Redistricting Data: What to Expect and When

By EditorJul 28, 2021

Director's Blog - BY DR. RON JARMIN, ACTING DIRECTOR: Since releasing the apportionment results in April, we’ve had several teams working hard on the next set of 2020 Census data — the redistricting data. These data play an important role in our democracy and will begin to illuminate the changes to the local and demographic makeup of our nation over the last decade. These data include the first sub-state population counts and demographic characteristics from the census, information that states typically use for redistricting — the process of redrawing electoral district boundaries based on where their populations have increased or…

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Resources Available to Prepare for the 2020 Census Redistricting Data Release

By EditorJul 28, 2021

Press Release- BY JAMES WHITEHORNE, CHIEF, REDISTRICTING DATA AND VOTING RIGHTS OFFICE: In a few weeks, we’ll release the 2020 Census redistricting data in our legacy summary file format. And a few weeks after that, we’ll release the same data in an easier-to-use format. We’re releasing the same data twice but in different formats at different times to make sure states get the data as quickly as possible. Acting Director Dr. Ron Jarmin explained these two releases in his blog, Redistricting Data: What to Expect and When. In this blog, I provide more detail about the formats and support materials available,…

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Census Bureau: New Demonstration Data Will Feature Higher Privacy-loss Budget, Satisfies Redistricting Accuracy Target

By EditorApr 19, 2021

On Monday, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that it has decided on the precise algorithm for its disclosure avoidance tool / differential privacy method. In short, the algorithm used to inject "noise" in the raw census data to protect privacy, will be set to inject a significantly lower level of noise into the data in comparison to previous samples released to the data user community over the past 18 months. Read the detailed release below: Press Release - April 19, 2021: Based on the results of over 600 experimental data runs to optimize and tune the parameters of the new…

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Oregon Supreme Court Establishes Revised Deadlines for Legislative Maps

By EditorApr 10, 2021

On Friday, the Oregon Supreme Court issued new deadlines for state legislative redistricting in light of the census redistricting data delay. The order extends state constitutional deadlines for legislative redistricting by three months. It does not address congressional redistricting in the state, which is governed by state statute. Read the opinion here. In its opinion and order, the court explained that the revised deadlines will enable the Legislative Assembly and the Secretary of State to fulfill their constitutional duties "without significantly affecting the rights of voters or interfering with the 2022 general election cycle." Practically speaking it observed that a…

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Here’s the Compressed 2021 Timeline for State Congressional Maps if Congress Passes HR1

By Jeffrey M. WiceMar 15, 2021

H.R. 1—the For the People Act—mandates significant changes to states’ congressional redistricting processes beginning with the post-2020 census redistricting in 2021. Under H.R. 1, a state’s congressional redistricting plan must be approved by a 15-member independent redistricting commission. The first six Commissioners are randomly chosen from a 36-member Selection Pool, and those six Commissioners then appoint the final nine. If a state does not form the required commission, a federal three-judge court will draw the district lines. I along with my colleague and Fellow at the New York Law School, Nicholas P. Stabile, have drafted this quick timeline for what…

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Understanding Prison Gerrymandering and Its Cure: Prisoner Reallocation

By EditorApr 08, 2015

Long overlooked in the context of redistricting, prisoners are counted by the U.S. Census Bureau as residents of the institutions they are incarcerated in. The goal of redistricting electoral boundaries at the state and local levels is to create equally populated districts that ensure every voter's vote has equal weight in an election. A consensus has been building over the years that large prison populations counted by the Census Bureau in this way, confounds these goals. While the Census Bureau has not changed its counting method for prisoners, in response to growing concern by states and advocacy groups, the Bureau…

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