TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Six years before it has to be done, state and federal officials are already talking about redistricting of congressional and legislative districts in Kansas.
The new maps for political districts aren't due in Kansas until 2022. But officials from the U.S. Census Bureau met with the state Legislature's research department last week to discuss the process and get familiar with data and computer software that will be used, The Lawrence Journal-World reported (http://bit.ly/1riKLnN).
The next census will be in 2020 and states have two years after that to draw new political maps.
"It's a long process, so we want to get information out early so folks can start preparing whatever material they need — geographic information; software — so they can start thinking about how they're going to implement the program when it comes time to actually start redistricting," said Michael Ratcliffe, the Census Bureau's assistant division chief for geographic standards in Washington.
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The census counts each state's residents and maps them into geographic units known as census "blocks." Legislatures use that data to draw maps that are supposed to be as equal in population as possible.
The process is often controversial. In 2012, Kansas lawmakers were unable to draw a redistricting plan of their own, leaving the job to a three-judge federal court panel.
An estimated 2.9 million people currently live in Kansas, about 2.1 percent more than the count from the 2010 census. Kansans are steadily moving from rural areas into the state's larger cities, particularly Kansas City and Lawrence, and Ratcliff said that trend is likely to continue.
"Some of the (rural) counties out here in Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas hit their peaks in the late 1800s, others in the early part of the 20th century," he said. "And that's happening all across the country, really, not just out here."
The shift likely means the next round of redistricting will leave Kansas City, Lawrence and Wichita metropolitan areas with more seats in the Kansas Legislature, with fewer rural legislators. That could lead to significant changes in how the state's four congressional districts are configured. It appears the First district, which covers all of western Kansas and much of central Kansas will become larger geographically, while the Second and Third Districts of eastern Kansas, and the Fourth District around Wichita will become smaller.
The state officials who met at the Statehouse won't be involved in those decisions. They will manage the data files and software programs that allow lawmakers and others to draw maps and submit their proposals for the new districts.
"We provide the data. The states then do the work. We stay out of that," Ratcliffe said.
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Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com
