Politico: Redistricting sprint begins with major census data drop

Politico: Redistricting sprint begins with major census data drop

“Where do we know people are, but they just weren't counted because of unusual circumstances?” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director at the good-government group Common Cause. She noted that in addition to the significant problems caused by pandemic, this was the first time the Census Bureau pushed people to respond online, a major shift for the agency. “It’s sort of like the Hubble telescope. It’s the best that we got, but we know there’s a scratch on it,” she added. “Can we figure out exactly where the distortion is, that’s caused by that scratch on the lens?”

The Census Bureau’s long-awaited release of redistricting data Thursday will unleash a torrent of new state political maps in the weeks and months to come, starting with the handful of states pressed against early fall deadlines to enact new district boundaries.

Altogether, the maps could tilt control of Congress for the next decade, but they’ll come out one by one at first. Strategists from both parties predict that some states will finalize maps as soon as September and that roughly half of the states will set their new lines by the end of the year. The rest will follow in the first few months of 2022. …

The release on Thursday will also allow advocates to see how Americans were counted — and, crucially, if any population was missed, or “undercounted.”

“Where do we know people are, but they just weren’t counted because of unusual circumstances?” said Kathay Feng, the national redistricting director at the good-government group Common Cause. She noted that in addition to the significant problems caused by pandemic, this was the first time the Census Bureau pushed people to respond online, a major shift for the agency.

“It’s sort of like the Hubble telescope. It’s the best that we got, but we know there’s a scratch on it,” she added. “Can we figure out exactly where the distortion is, that’s caused by that scratch on the lens?”