CBS This Morning (VIDEO): How latest census data may shift balance of power in the U.S.: “Most voters don’t even know about it”

Newly-released data from the Census Bureau shows how America’s population is changing dramatically. Demographers have been predicting it for years, but the new numbers show the United States is getting more multiracial even faster than expected. …

Many advocates also hope that as states start redrawing boundaries, they curb the practice of gerrymandering – drawing twisted Congressional districts to benefit one party over the other.

An example of that is in Maryland, where voters in the fourth Congressional district live across the street from voters in the fifth Congressional district. Driving just three miles from that divided neighborhood, you can cross through three Democratic Congressional districts.

“The politician chooses their district and their voters, and if they don’t like a group of their voters, they can carve them off and move them someplace else,” said Michael Goff, Maryland president of Common Cause. “They can create their own safe district, what we call safe seats.”

Common Cause pushes states to turn census numbers over to independent commissions to draw nonpartisan congressional maps.

“It’s a once-in-ten-year process,” said Goff. “Probably the most important political development of the next ten years is happening in the next few months, and most voters don’t even know about it.”