By Stephanie Kanowitz
Jan 20, 2021
Now that the election is over, state and local governments are turning their attention to ways that data and geographic information systems can aid in redistricting efforts.
The Redistricting Data Program at the Census Bureau is legally required to give states time to identify the geographic areas for legislative redistricting. “That requires us to deliver high-quality data for those areas in a timely manner,” said James Whitehorn, chief of the bureau’s Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office.
During “The Census and Your Dataset” session of a Jan. 6 virtual redistricting seminar hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures, Whitehorn said that Census blocks are the smallest areas the bureau provides data for and that they among the most useful for redistricting. The bureau also provides geographic data on voting districts and state congressional and legislative districts. Census calls the data “geographic products,” which come in several forms, including PDF-based maps, county block maps, tracked maps, voting district maps and shapefiles -- the digital geographic files that are used in GIS.