Center for Public Integrity: Redistricting, Plagued by Delays, Carries High Stakes for Communities of Color

Delays to the release of 2020 census data are upending the already fraught once-a-decade process of redrawing political maps, and experts warn that could prompt a more rushed, opaque process in some states.

The census data will shape political power over the course of the next decade. Communities of color have much at stake: Latino, Black and Asian American voters make up 80% of the country’s increase in eligible voters since 2011, according to a projection in a report on redistricting the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law issued this month. …

But watchdogs are worried that the delays in some cases will mean maps drawn with less public input and scant time to litigate before elections.

“State legislatures that already have very little incentive to make the process public and include people from traditionally marginalized communities are now going to have the additional excuse that they’re trying to meet a tight time frame,” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director for Common Cause, a nonpartisan nonprofit.

Feng said Common Cause is working with community organizations to prepare ahead of the data release. They’re also warning them to “be on guard for midnight redistricting sessions” once the data comes out, she said.