Austin (1080 KRLD) - Governor Greg Abbott is one of 15 Republican governors to sign a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, asking for the release of information from the 2020 Census. They say the current timeline will keep them from redrawing Congressional districts for the mid-term elections in 2022.
"While we recognize the difficulties associated with completing a decennial census amid a pandemic, the ongoing delay in the release of 2020 Census redistricting data places our states in a nearly impossible situation to redraw lines prior to the 2022 election cycle," the letter reads.
The letter was sent Tuesday by the Republican Governors Association.
The 2020 U.S. Census was delayed by an effort to include a question about citizenship which was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. The pandemic then delayed the start of in-person follow-ups.
State population totals are normally released by the end of the year the Census is taken. This year, those numbers were delayed until April.
Texas led the nation in population growth from 2010 to 2020, adding almost four million residents to a total of more than 29 million. The state gained two additional Congressional seats for a total of 38.
But block-by-block information used to draw Congressional boundaries has not yet been released.
"As a departure from the traditional timeline, the Bureau released 2020 apportionment data in April 2021, nearly four months behind schedule, which should result in the delivery of 2020 redistricting data by June or July of this year," the governors' letter continues. "However, it is our understanding that the Bureau will not release redistricting data until on or about September 30, 2021, with a potential release of legacy data sometime in mid-to-late August 2021.
"The extended timeline represents a six-to-seven-month delay of redistricting data and is nearly double the conventional length of time between releasing both data sets."
In a lawsuit filed by the state of Ohio, the U.S. Census said it expected to provide the required redistricting data "in a legacy format, no later than August 16, 2021."
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