Roll Call: Census delay sends redistricting ripples nationwide

The Census Bureau’s late delivery of redistricting data will trigger a cascade of delays across the country, potentially complicating the mapmaking process in many states and delaying local elections.

Congress may still pass a law extending the agency’s deadline to deliver apportionment figures, but that won’t help states about to bump against, or crash through, their own legal deadlines to redraw legislative and congressional maps. A handful of states, such as New Jersey and California, have mechanisms in place to handle census data coming up to four months late. Others, less so. …

The Colorado state constitution mandates the state’s redistricting commission meet in March and present a preliminary set of new maps within 45 days, or “whenever the necessary census data is available, whichever is later,” but sets a final deadline of September. Chen said the commission may not meet that deadline and the interpretation could be open to the courts. …

Amanda Gonzalez, executive director of Common Cause Colorado, said that doesn’t leave much time for the mechanics of the redistricting process, even if there is technically enough time to draw maps. The commission, created by a 2018 ballot measure, mandates 21 public meetings as part of the mapmaking process along with an extensive public comment period.

“What we’re looking at right now is how do we maintain that process,” she said. “We want to give the commission time to review the information that comes to them, give community members time to look at the census data that comes in, and everybody’s gonna want time to, to look at the data.”