Drawing the Lines and Divvying up the State

Now that the election has come and gone and votes have been tallied, one of the next tasks for the State Legislature is redistricting and apportionment. During the process of redistricting, the Legislature will use the new 2010 census population data to re-draw Kansas House, Kansas Senate, Kansas Board of Education and the state's four Congressional districts. As population shifts, counties may gain or lose representation in the State Legislature or Congress. The final drawing of boundaries will occur after the adjournment of the 2012 legislative session.

Public Law 94-171, enacted by Congress in December 1975, requires the Census Bureau to provide state legislatures with the small area census population tabulations necessary for legislative redistricting.

The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Committee has already begun work on compiling resources for the Legislature.

Members of the Redistricting Advisory Committee:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/2010CommMembership/2010-redist-ad-grp.pdf

Find maps, demographic tables and profiles for current Kansas House and Senate districts enacted by the 2002 Legislature. The population information was derived from the 2000 US Census of Population and Housing. The same information is available for Kansas' 10 State Board of Education and four Congressional districts:

http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/LegisDist.htm

Find your Legislative, Congressional and Board of Education district numbers:

http://www.ipsr.ku.edu/ksdata/vote/

See the data available to the Legislature to use to help determine district boundaries:
http://www.census.gov/rdo/data/redistricting_data.html and
http://www.census.gov/rdo/data/state_legislative_district_data.html

Guide to the 2010 Redistricting Data from the U.S. Census:
http://www.census.gov/rdo/pdf/StrengthInNumbers2010.pdf

Learn more about the timeline for redistricting in Kansas from the Legislative Research Department:
http://skyways.lib.ks.us/ksleg/KLRD/Publications/2010Briefs/s-s-2-redistricting-timeline.pdf

As prescribed by the Constitution, the first decennial census was conducted in 1790. Thomas Jefferson, Secretary of State at the time, directed the enumeration. Since then, the census has been taken in each year ending in a zero digit. Thus, the most recent enumeration (Census 2000) was the last census of the 20th century.

Learn more about apportionment at the U.S. Census:

http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/apportionment/index.html

Read the formula used to compute apportionment:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/apportionment/computing.html

History of apportionment in the United States:
http://www.census.gov/population/www/censusdata/apportionment/history.html

View current state data for Kansas from the State Data Center of Kansas:

http://www.kslib.info/sdc/

Article contact: Kim Harp