Census data delay sends redistricting ripples nationwide

WASHINGTON — 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.

“There have been tests [of the system] before — some state has been late with their data. Certainly nothing like the systemic and widespread delay, for obvious reasons, that we’re seeing. That will be coming up and making so many state governments basically do improv,” said Jason Rhode, the national coordinator of the Princeton

Gerrymandering Project.

The Census Bureau missed, for the first time ever, its Dec. 31 deadline to deliver congressional apportionment data following disruptions caused by the pandemic, natural disasters and various decisions by the former Trump administration.

The agency originally requested a 120-day deadline extension after months of operational delays. The Trump administration later abandoned that effort amid a push to exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment.

On Wednesday, a Census Bureau official told state legislators during a conference that the first set of results from the 2020 census probably won’t be released for several more months. The agency confirmed that assessment Thursday.

“Our current schedule points to April 30, 2021, for the completion of the apportionment counts. This date remains fluid and could continue to change as data processing continues,” it said in a statement.