Media reports have noted the U.S. Census Bureau could further delay the release of redistricting data used for drawing congressional and legislative districts. The redistricting data is currently set to be sent to states on August 16. That could be postponed by as much as six additional months if the bureau is ordered to release more records dealing with how it counted people living in what it refers to as “group quarters,” Census Bureau Chief Scientist John Abowd said in a sworn declaration. For more information, see the court documents here.
The release of the redistricting data already was postponed by five months from its original March 31 deadline because of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. This caused states to revise redistricting deadlines. The Associated Press further reports that two states, Ohio and Alabama, sued the Census Bureau in an unsuccessful effort to get it to release the data before August.