Virginia Redistricting Commissioners Debate Timing, Procedure, in First Meeting Since Census Data Published
Virginia | August 17, 2021
The U.S. Census Bureau released 2020 census data on Friday, but on Monday, the Virginia Redistricting Commission voted 14-1 with one abstention to consider August 26 the date of receipt of census bureau data. That’s due to Census Bureau delays that led to the data being released in an older format that will take vendors two weeks to process.
“This situation is very different from, I think, probably any other redistricting effort that has been done since long before World War II,” Senator George Barker (D-Fairfax) said, noting that law requires delivery of census data within a year of the census date.
“The start date for this round of redistricting was April 1, 2020, and therefore all the data should have been provided by April first of 2021,” he said. “However, largely because of the pandemic as well as other issues that came about in development and implementation of the census, it took a long time to get the census information forwarded, and we still have not received the final data and the final formatted assemblage that’s required here.”
The official start date launches a 45-day deadline to complete House of Delegates and Senate maps. It also launches a 60-day deadline to complete congressional district maps. Media including The Virginia Star reported August 12 as the start date. But the format of data released on August 12 is not the final format, which the Census Bureau says will be released by late September. Redistricting commission members debated whether to consider August 12, August 26, or September 30 the start date…. (Excerpts from the Virginia Star)