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Maryland Enacts State Voting Rights Act, with Local Elections at the Center

By EditorMay 25, 20260 Comments

Governor Wes Moore signed the Voting Rights Act of 2026 for Counties and Municipal Corporations (SB 255) into law on April 28, 2026, making Maryland the ninth state in the country to enact its own voting rights protections. The law directly targets local government electoral systems, prohibiting any county or municipal body from using an election method that dilutes or impairs a protected class's ability to elect candidates of their choice. To enforce the new standard, the Maryland Attorney General is authorized to investigate and sue local jurisdictions found to be operating such systems, while individual voters also gain a…

Marylandlocalpage, Maryland

Why the 2030 Census LUCA Program Matters to Redistricting and GIS Staff

By EditorMay 16, 20260 Comments

Most redistricting discussions focus on the maps, who draws them, what criteria they must meet, and how they will hold up in court. But every redistricting map built from 2030 Census data will ultimately rest on a foundation that GIS and redistricting staff rarely talk about: the Census Bureau's residential address list. The Local Update of Census Addresses operation is the first to occur in every decennial census cycle, and it gives state, tribal, and local governments their only opportunity to directly help ensure an accurate enumeration by reviewing and submitting updates or corrections to the confidential address list before…

Census Data and Geographydataindepth, localpage, LUCA, U.S. Census Bureau

Five Census Bureau Tools Every Local Election Official Should Bookmark

By EditorMay 15, 20260 Comments

The Census Bureau offers a growing suite of free, browser-based tools that are directly useful for local election administration and redistricting work, and most officials don't know they exist. All five tools are free, require no account or login, and are updated regularly with the latest ACS and decennial census data. QuickFacts: The first stop for any local official should be QuickFacts, which delivers instant demographic snapshots; population, age, race, income, housing, etc., for any county, city, or town in the country with no data expertise required. TigerWeb: Next is TIGERweb, the Census Bureau's interactive boundary map viewer. TIGERweb allows users to…

Census Data and Geographydataindepth, localpage

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

By EditorMay 15, 20260 Comments

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

What Is a Shapefile and Why Do You Need One for Redistricting?

By EditorMay 14, 20260 Comments

If you have spent any time around redistricting software or GIS professionals, you have probably heard the term "shapefile" and possibly nodded along without knowing what it means. A shapefile is a digital file format that stores the geographic boundaries of a defined area as a map layer. Think of it as the outline of a jurisdiction, your city limits, your county boundaries, your voting precincts, your census tracts, all saved in a format that mapping software can read, display, and analyze. TIGER boundary files are shapefiles from the Census Bureau that are important for drawing legally compliant district maps.…

Census Data and Geographylocalpage

Why the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS) Matters for Local Redistricting Officials

By EditorDec 15, 2025

Every year, the U.S. Census Bureau invites tribal, state, and general-purpose local governments, counties, cities, towns, and minor civil divisions to verify that its legal-boundary file is still accurate. This verification program is the Boundary and Annexation Survey (BAS). For local officials, keeping your boundaries current is not just cartographic housekeeping. BAS data feeds the American Community Survey, the Population Estimates Program, and the TIGER/Line layers that nearly all redistricting platforms rely on. Accurate boundary lines also protect your jurisdiction’s share of the roughly $2.8 trillion in annual federal funds that are allocated by geography. Who should participate and what’s…

Census Data and GeographyBAS, census data, dataindepth, localpage

An Overview of Local Redistricting

By EditorJun 29, 2025

The local redistricting process, where counties, cities, school boards, and special districts redraw their geographic boundaries, shares many of the same legal and procedural frameworks as state‐level redistricting but operates at a far more granular scale. Below is an in‐depth look at how local redistricting unfolds, key hurdles jurisdictions face, proven best practices, a general timeline, and how these local efforts differ from statewide map‐drawing. Overview of Local Redistricting Any elected body based on districts, such as county boards, city councils, school boards, utility districts, even some judicial and special‐purpose bodies, must periodically redraw lines so that each district remains…

Local RedistrictingBASICS, localpage

Study: Census Bureau’s Differential Privacy Disclosure Avoidance System Produces Concerning Results for Local Jurisdictions

By EditorMar 31, 2021

Recent research into the effect of differential privacy (DP) on Alaska's census data show concerning results, especially for small area geographies such as townships, municipalities and other local jurisdictions. The authors of the study, a summary of which is posted in the blog for the Population Association of America, warn that local redistricting and other activities connected to census data could be substantially impacted by the Census Bureau's application of differential privacy on raw census data. The authors of the study, David Swanson, Professor Emeritus, Sociology at the University of California - Riverside, T.M. Bryan of Bryan Demographic Research, Richmond,…

Census Data and Geography, DATA and TECHNOLOGY, Local Redistricting, NEWS, RedistrictingAlaska, Analysis, dataindepth, localpage