Redistricting and Census

Policies to address representational imbalances caused by the Census Bureau’s “usual residence” rule are known to some as “ending prison gerrymandering”; others call it, more neutrally, “inmate data reallocation.”

Ahead of their 2023 legislative sessions, lawmakers expect to address the need for affordable housing, a strong child care workforce and adoption regulations.

Report summary of legislative staff experience reallocating inmate data for redistricting (aka prison gerrymandering reform) in the 2020 cycle.

A new data product from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey offers insights about the makeup of the 2022 congressional and legislative districts, many of which have been redrawn.

NCSL hosted a webinar series in 2022 and 2023 addressing accuracy, quality and concerns—plus ways that states can lend assistance to the bureau either to assure that the data is as accurate as possible, or to work with the data for analysis and beyond.

The United States Constitution, Article I, Section 2 requires congressional apportionment to be based on an “enumeration” of the U.S. population. However, the Constitution is silent on what data is to be used for redistricting.