Choices for Legislators and Staff
Legislators will be thinking about the impacts of changes to district lines: Which districts will be home to incumbents or can be designed to be competitive depending on their state’s priorities? How constituents’ needs are accommodated and similar political choices. Staff will be thinking about procedures, with the intent of making the process as smooth as possible.
The line between questions legislative leaders will address and questions staff are likely to answer is by no means clear, and yet there are differences. For instance:
Questions for Leaders and Staff
LEGISLATIVE LEADERS |
STAFF |
Who will provide support for redistricting? Staff, consultants or a mix?
|
How will staff be hired and trained? Consultants?
|
How much funding will be allocated for redistricting?
|
What will be the budget for redistricting, given available resources?
|
Will redistricting be the responsibility of a standing committee, or will a special committee need to be created?
|
How will multiple iterations be tracked? What documents must be kept? What naming convention will be used?
|
What training will be useful for members?
|
What is public information and how is it placed in an official record?
|
Who has authority to ask for changes or new iterations?
|
Who has access to enter changes in the software?
|
What’s the deadline for passing a redistricting bill?
|
What’s the timeline to get to the leaders’ deadline?
|
Who will be consulted, such as individual members, party people, constituents, the public?
|
How will opportunities be provided for these consultations?
|
What opportunities will the public have to provide input, either general ideas or to submit maps? Will the committee conduct a statewide tour? (See the next section)
|
How will public input be collected and managed? (See the next section)
|
Will all draft maps be published, or just the adopted maps?
|
How will maps be published?
|
When to call a special session, if needed?
|
Who can receive information and in what capacity or timeframe? How do we handle the media?
|
Others?
|
Others?
|
If legislative leaders and staff can answer these questions early, that’s great. When the data arrives, there will be plenty to do without making “how to” decisions on the fly.
Public Input
In the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, the public played little role in redistricting. In the 2000 cycle a few states provided an opportunity for the public to play a bigger role, up to and including creating maps for the legislature to consider. In the 2010 cycle, the role of the public became more prominent. In 2020, it is likely that many states will have formal or informal opportunities for public participation. In fact, since 2010, , legislation aimed at “transparency” and “public input” has been common. With or without a change to the constitution or statute, states are likely to find individuals and constituent groups clamoring for an opportunity to have a say—even if the final decision is made by the legislature.
Public input can begin even before the census data has arrived. Some states will carry out public hearings on what general concerns and values matter to which groups of people. Many states conduct hearings after they receive data from the Census Bureau to let residents comment on how district populations have changed based over the previous decade. In general, states hold hearings both before and after draft plans are released and before plans are finally approved.
Input on what are “communities of interest” may be helpful. The principle, “preservation of communities of interest” is in use in 44 states, and yet rarely defined. A community of interest can be a racial group, but it can also be a group tied together by common economic interests, such as rice farmers, religious communities, or a connection as simple as a major road or highway that encourages shared commerce between two communities. In states that seek to preserve communities of interest, the first step is to identify them.
A second opportunity to gather public input can come through “listening tours” around the state that take place after a first draft of maps has been created and before maps are finalized. It is likely that any committee hearings on redistricting will also have a public comment period as well, managed according to standard committee protocol. Staff can be prepared with suggestions on the number of meetings to hold and where to hold them. Of course, they’ll staff the meetings as well.
Many states create specific redistricting portals or email addresses such as “[email protected]” to receive input from those who cannot appear in person. Staff will be assigned to monitor these channels and condense or collate responses to share with legislative decisionmakers.
The biggest question about public input is whether the public will be able to submit plans, and if so, how. In the 2010 cycle, Utah set up terminals in many locations around the state for the public to draw and submit maps. Maps that met Utah’s principles, or criteria, were accepted for consideration, and a public-submitted map for the State Board of Education was adopted by the legislature.
Leadership, with advice from staff, will probably decide whether citizen access to mapdrawing will be available and if so, whether access is available in one terminal at the state capitol, a handful of terminals around the state, or perhaps a system in the “cloud” that anyone can use from any computer. No matter what the decision is, it is possible that during the 2020 cycle, public software may be available from nonprofit organizations to encourage “citizen participation” (which often comes from advocacy groups or minority political parties such as Libertarians or Greens) in redistricting. Staff will need to be prepared to deal with these submissions, even if there is no formal channel.
Publishing and Transmitting Maps
“A reporter was in our building during the last redistricting cycle and snapped a photo of the commission’s (yet to be released) congressional map. At the very least, if draft maps are draft legislation, you need a secure, locked facility where your plotter resides.” —Michelle Davis, senior policy analyst, Maryland General Assembly
First, until a redistricting bill, regardless of its format as will be discussed below, is dropped in the hopper, the same privacy restrictions likely apply as to any other bill. This is important, especially when large draft maps may be available for viewing by members—but must be secured. At the very least, draft maps must be developed in a locked facility where your plotter is secure.
Redistricting plans begin as maps. Each map, and all its content, is typically translated into a bill. The legislature then votes on the bill. How the map is created, what data is used, and the language used in the bill can be quite different based on the type of approach used to represent the real world. In most cases, states use one of the following: “metes and bounds” information, geographic information system files called shapefiles or block equivalency files.
Traditionally, “metes and bounds” have been used to describe the physical world. Metes and bounds is a system to describe a piece of land, or in the case of redistricting, a district. With the metes and bounds approach, specific real-world geographic features, and occasionally jurisdictional boundaries, are used to identify the boundary of a district. This system is still common.
The bill to enact a redistricting plan includes a street file. Street files often look like this:
300 – 500 Main Street, even numbers |
Senate District A |
House District 11 |
301 – 501 Main Street, odd numbers |
Senate District A |
House District 12 |
502 – 750 Main Street, even numbers |
Senate District B |
House District 11 |
As you can see from the example above, street files are tabular in nature, with additions being added as a spreadsheet of some kind is edited. Additions are made over a decade, between redistricting years. The maintenance of this list can be particularly challenging since additions cannot be viewed spatially. Also, if there is an error in translating geography into a list, it will likely not be identified. The list is what is signed into law.
Did You Know
In North Carolina and Maryland, redistricting is done by a resolution, not a bill. That means the governors in those two states don’t have a say.
Another approach used to represent the physical world is the shapefile. A shapefile is a data format used in geographic information systems (GIS) software. A shapefile is a combination of several files and data sets. One file (.shp) defines geography, such as legislative districts, congressional districts, and Census geographic units (block, block groups, tracts, etc.). Another file (.dbf) contains attributes for each geographic unit, such as the total number of persons, the voting age population, and the racial composition of the population in each geographic unit (as per the Census data). Other files included in a shapefile are necessary for the proper use of the shapefile, such as shape index (.shx) and projection (.prj) files.
Geographic features in a shapefile can be represented by points, lines, or polygons (areas). Because shapefiles maintain the correct spatial, or topological, relation among the different geographic units, they are ideal for redistricting purposes. For example, shapefiles allow for the addition or subtraction of geographic units into districts to achieve population equality, compactness, contiguity and other redistricting principles.
A shapefile is a combination of two or more data sets: one that defines geography (per the census), one that defines population (also per the census) and perhaps others. By dividing all territory into unique shapes, no terrain is missed, and new developments will fit within a pre-defined shape.
A redistricting bill can refer to, and include, a shapefile. It is important to note that shapefiles are a good way to represent physical geography; however, they must be updated and managed appropriately. Election data scale needs to be at a particular level to place voters in the right district. This scale needs to be determined by a GIS professional—hence the importance of election and GIS professionals working together.
A third option is the block equivalency file. A block equivalency file is a table that provides a one-to-one correspondence between census blocks and districts. Because all geography is captured in a census block, by accounting for all census blocks, all geography is included in a district. By going this route, it is less likely that any voters will be assigned to the wrong precinct. ("According to Election Data Services, every time they perform a voter verification process in a jurisdiction, between 10 and 12 percent of voters are currently in the wrong precinct, although many fewer are in the wrong electoral districts.)
Census block 1
|
House District 13
|
Senate District 1
|
Census block 2
|
House District 13
|
Senate District 2
|
Census block 3
|
House District 14
|
Senate District 2
|
Census block 4
|
House District 15
|
Senate District 3
|
The decision about how to define the maps in legislation is likely to be made by leadership, but staff may be called on to explain the options and make recommendations. In a few states, statute will call for one option or another, and legislation would be needed to change to a new system.
Did You Know?
Regardless of the method of creating a map and enacting it, mistakes can and do happen. A few states have statutory provisions that address what the legal map is in the case it being found to have a defect in it—such as a discontinuous block. Find out if your state is among them.
Transmitting Redistricting Plans to Local Election Officials
Once redistricting bills are enacted, the legislature’s work is done—but the work for local jurisdictions is just beginning. Local election officials need to define precincts and prepare voter lists based on who is in which district, from U.S. House, through state districts, and down to special districts. The hand-off of data to the local jurisdictions can make their work easier or harder. And, with the next election likely just a few months away (and filing deadlines even sooner) they don’t have a lot of time for this task.
It is likely local election officials have a street address file that corresponds to all known addresses in the county or other jurisdiction that might look something like this:
300-600 Main St (even addresses)
|
District 13
|
Precinct 13A
|
301- 601 Main St (odd addresses)
|
District 13
|
Precinct 13B
|
1-12000 East First Place
|
District 14
|
Precinct 14A
|
1-12000 East Second Place
|
District 14
|
Precinct 14B
|
In the past, common practice has been to update that file, rather than start from scratch. That may be changing this decade, as interest in using GIS in the general field of election administration increases.
In states where metes and bounds are used for legislation, the translation to a street address file is difficult.
In states that use shape files from their GIS systems that depict the geometry and data associated with districts, election administrators need to be able to work with GIS as well.
If possible, transferring the districts to administrators through a block equivalency file—where every census block is detailed—is preferred. With thousands of census blocks, it’s still hard. It might be helpful to discuss the transfer process with your state’s local election officials well in advance.
Detailed maps of new district boundaries and reports of the existing precincts included in, or split by, new district lines may also be helpful to provide to local election officials.
In addition, local jurisdictions may be preparing to do their own redistricting for county, municipal, school board or other electoral bodies. While they have their own processes and criteria, they will want to start with the state’s map.