Webinar on Census & Redistricting Asian Americans Advancing - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Webinar on Census & Redistricting Asian Americans Advancing - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Jan 25, 2023 109 likes •511 views

PREPARED FOR: Webinar on Census & Redistricting Asian Americans Advancing Justice Monthly Webinar Series 2020: May: Census Response Rates & Reaching Historically Undercounted Communities : https://bit.ly/3etLD28 April:

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PREPARED FOR:

Webinar on Census & Redistricting

Asian Americans Advancing Justice

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Monthly Webinar Series

2020:

  • May: Census Response Rates & Reaching Historically Undercounted Communities:

https://bit.ly/3etLD28

  • April: Non-Response Follow Up & Local Outreach: https://bit.ly/2KmMqV2
  • March: Census Mailing Responses & Self Response: https://bit.ly/2QGoZcT

2019:

  • February: Questionnaire Assistance Centers and Libraries: https://bit.ly/2PMFwf3
  • December: Engaging K-12 Students/Teachers on the 2020

Census: https://bit.ly/2S4YCON

  • October: Engaging College Students on the 2020 Census https://bit.ly/2QHSbkt
  • September: Census & Data https://bit.ly/2ozGlwO
  • August: Organizing, Engagement, and Census Bureau and Partnerships

https://bit.ly/2zalbaI

  • June: Citizenship Question – Next Steps https://bit.ly/30IxaYz

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Monthly Webinar Series

2019 (continued):

  • May: Digital Tools – Hard to Count Map http://bit.ly/2IcohyQ
  • April: Engaging the LGBTQ AANHPI Community https://bit.ly/2Hy27bq
  • March: Fundraising https://bit.ly/2DlGl8i
  • March: Digital Tools – CommunityConnect Labs https://bit.ly/2HOvpD6
  • February: Engaging the AANHPI Faith Community https://bit.ly/2HueDcX

2018:

  • November: The Race Question https://bit.ly/2U1GXpN
  • October: Communications – Messaging Deep Dive https://bit.ly/2Fq512S
  • September: How are People Counted in the Census? https://bit.ly/2Prvr81
  • August: Census FAQs https://bit.ly/2zb6jsk

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Agenda

  • Overview of CountUsIn2020.org
  • 844-2020-API Census Language Hotline
  • Redistricting and Local AANHPI Community

Involvement

  • High-Level Legal Considerations
  • Intersectionality of Communities of Color and

Redistricting

  • The 2020 Census and Redistricting

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Visit our new census website for our resources, partner resources, press releases, latest news, social media, and more!

www.CountUsIn2020.org

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Census Language Hotline

Check out our toolkit here: https://bit.ly/hotlinetoolkit

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Census Language Hotline

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Karuna Ramachandran

Director of Statewide Partnerships Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta

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From Census to Redistricting

Census data translates to real changes in our states and communities AANHPIs are the fastest growing populations in the U.S. electorate As our communities’ voting power grows we can expect more efforts at voter suppression

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Gerrymandering is the manipulation of district lines to impact the results

  • f an election.

Gerrymandering can affect the actual power

  • ur communities’ have to

elect a candidate of choice at all levels.

Gwinnett County Black Alone: 29.8% Hispanic or Latino: 21.7% Asian Alone: 12.5% AI/AN: 0.8% Native Hawaiian/ PI: 0.1% White/ Not Hispanic Alone: 35.4%

In 2018, Gwinnett County elected its 1st person of color EVER to the board

  • f education
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Why Should AANHPI Communities Get Involved in Redistricting?

We should be self-determined! Proactive involvement can weaken gerrymandering attempts. AANHPI communities have power! We can hold elected officials accountable and demand information about redistricting processes at any level. Together with other communities we can build long-term power over the next decade.

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Justin Valas

Policy Director Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Chicago

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How can AANHPI communities get involved?

Campaigns

Representatives

Redistricting

Census

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How can AANHPI communities get involved?

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  • Talk to your communities
  • Build new relationships
  • Find partners
  • Learn about your state-specific

timelines and rules for redistricting

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How can AANHPI communities get involved?

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  • Talk to your communities

–Why redistricting is important –What would your community look like

  • n a map?

–What other communities share space

  • r interests with us?
  • Find partners
  • Build new relationships
  • Learn about your state-specific timelines and rules for redistricting
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How can AANHPI communities get involved?

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  • Talk to your communities
  • Build new relationships

–What other communities are in your area? –Who else should be “at the table”?

  • Find partners
  • Learn about your state-specific timelines and rules for redistricting
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How can AANHPI communities get involved?

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  • Talk to your communities
  • Build new relationships
  • Find partners

–What organizations are already working in your communities? –What organizations do you already partner with? –What organizations are already looking at redistricting?

  • Learn about your state-specific timelines and rules for redistricting
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How can AANHPI communities get involved?

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  • Talk to your communities
  • Find partners
  • Build new relationships
  • Learn about your state-specific timelines

and rules for redistricting –Not all states follow the same guidelines and timelines

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Julia Marks

Staff Attorney, Voting Rights and Census Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus

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Redistricting: Preliminary Questions

  • Where are you engaging

in redistricting?

  • What levels of redistricting

are you engaging in?

  • Congressional
  • State legislative
  • Local city, county,

school board

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Redistricting: Preliminary Questions

  • Key parts of the redistricting process vary

between states

  • Timeline
  • Who decides the maps
  • How can community-members provide

testimony

  • Criteria for drawing districts
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Redistricting Criteria – Equal Population

  • Each district must have the same total

population

  • This is required everywhere--no matter

what state you’re in!

  • Stricter standard for congressional

districts than for state & local districts

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Redistricting Criteria – Voting Rights Act

  • Maps must comply with the federal Voting

Rights Act

  • The Voting Rights Act was passed to

address discrimination against communities of color

  • Lines have been manipulated to

decrease voting power for communities

  • f color – VRA is meant to stop that
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Redistricting Criteria – Voting Rights Act

  • VRA requires a majority-minority district if:
  • The minority group is large & geographically

concentrated

  • The minority group is politically cohesive,

and the majority group votes to defeat the minority group’s preferred candidates

  • The “totality of the circumstances” show

vote dilution

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Other Common Redistricting Criteria

  • Communities of Interest
  • Community or group of people who have

common interests and policy concerns

  • What makes a neighborhood or

community unique?

  • What shared goals do people have?
  • What shared traits & characteristics do

people have?

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Other Common Redistricting Criteria

  • Contiguity
  • All parts of the district are adjacent
  • Political Boundaries
  • Follow political boundaries so cities

and/or counties are kept together

  • Compactness
  • Create districts where people generally

live near each other

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Other Common Redistricting Criteria

  • Natural Boundaries
  • Existing Legislative Boundaries (nesting)
  • Incumbency
  • Political Outcomes
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Steven Ochoa

National Redistricting Coordinator Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund

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Terry Ao Minnis

Senior Director of Voting and Census Programs Asian Americans Advancing Justice l AAJC

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Census Data & Redistricting

  • Apportionment Data: Constitutionally-mandated
  • By January 1 of the year after the census: Commerce Dept must

deliver apportionment counts to the president (total population, and number of congressional seats, of each state)

  • By January 10, delivery of the apportionment counts from

president to Congress

  • Redistricting Data: P.L. 94-171 file
  • Commerce Department must provide states with the block-level

population and demographic data needed to redistricting (commonly known the “P.L. 94-171 file” or simply the “P.L. file”) by no later than April 1 of the year after the census (as required by statute).

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COVID-19 & 2020 Census: Operational Delays

  • In March 2020

– Global COVID-19 pandemic began to publicly intensify in the United States & many states issued stay-at-home orders – Census Bureau suspended its field activities and closed field offices

  • In April 2020, the Bureau adjusted its operational schedule

– Extends its census data collection into the Fall and proposing a 3- month extension with a new end date for field operations and self- response of no later than Oct. 31, 2020

  • Current Operational Plan (fluid and ever changing)

– In July, census takers (PPE required) began NRFU in selected areas. NRFU starts nationwide in August 2020. – Mobile Questionnaire Assistance – Census Bureau staff goes into communities with the lowest 2020 Census response rates to assist people with responding on their own– is available July 13-Sept 18 – Group Quarters – currently ongoing and ends by Sept. 3, 2020.

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COVID-19 & 2020 Census: Request for Deadline Extensions

  • Request to Congress in Shifting Statutory

Deadlines by 4 months:

–Delivering of apportionment counts to the President: delivery would be moved from December 31, 2020 to April 30, 2021 –Delivering of redistricting data to states: delivery would be moved from April 1, 2020 to July 31, 2021

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State Redistricting Deadlines

  • States With Legislative Elections Regularly Scheduled for November 2021 (2)

– New Jersey, Virginia

  • States With Constitutional Redistricting Deadlines in 2021 (6)

– California, Colorado, Ohio, South Dakota, Maine, Washington

  • States With Statutory Redistricting Deadlines in 2021 (4)

– Delaware, Iowa, Vermont, Washington

  • States With Constitutional Requirements for Redistricting to Take Place in the Year

After the Census (14)

– Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Wisconsin

  • States With Constitutional Requirements for Redistricting to Take Place in the Year

After Census Data Is Delivered (7)

– Alaska, Idaho, Montana, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah

  • States With Other Deadlines (2)

– Missouri, Hawaii

  • States With No Mention of Redistricting Deadlines in the Constitution or Statutes (8)

– Georgia, Arizona, Nebraska, New Mexico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia

  • States With Redistricting Deadlines in 2022 (8)

– Florida, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, New York, Wyoming, Kansas, Kentucky

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Impact of Requested Deadline Extensions on Redistricting

  • For the states with legislative elections regularly scheduled for November

2021

– Even if census data is provided to these states as early as the middle of June, preparing for a November election is nearly impossible. – These states might ask a court for relief or look for a legislative solution. For example, NJ's state Assembly's Judiciary Committee voted 4-2 several weeks ago to advance a measure that would delay its mapmaking process to 2023.

  • For states with constitutional deadlines:

– Amending the constitution is an option (which has its own deadlines and hurdles). – The state could file a lawsuit for relief.

  • For states with statutorily set deadlines, setting a new deadline is an
  • ption.
  • For states where the census data delays will make it difficult to complete

redistricting before candidate filing deadlines for the state primary:

– Either the primary date or the filing data could be moved (which has its own hurdles and consequences). – Where permitted, the state could hold a special session for redistricting; some states do this as usual practice already, such as New Mexico.

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Legislative Landscape re: Requested Deadline Extension

  • Congress has not yet granted the requested extensions.
  • Legislative vehicles to grant requested extensions:

– HEROES Act (H.R. 6800/COVID recovery 4.0). – Fair and Accurate Census Act (H.R. 7034/S. 4048)

  • Deadline offers opportunity for additional provisions aimed at improving

the count in the 2020 census – additional funding – reporting requirements language – stopping the creation of the problematic CVAP redistricting dataset that will provide CVAP data at the block level

  • Recently, in response to the question “What will happen if Congress

doesn't delay the statutory reporting deadlines,” the Bureau publicly stated for the first time, that they are “past the window of being able to produce the apportionment data by December 31."

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Community Participation in Redistricting (CPR) Act

  • In the event of a 4-month delay and in recognition of the chaos that would

ensue, this Act would override any state statutory or constitutional deadlines with respect to Congressional redistricting under the Elections Clause of the Constitution for the redistricting cycle following the 2020 Census.

– No new Congressional redistricting plan can be enacted for 90 days after receipt of their P.L.-file in order to allow for meaningful public input – New Congressional plan must be drawn by the initial enacting body or authority responsible for new congressional district boundaries – New Congressional map may not go into effect for at least 45 days after being enacted (realign precincts and voting tabulation districts, and permit court intervention without unduly harming individual candidates).

  • Impact on Timing: For states receiving their P.L.-file at the end of July 2021:

– 90 days for enactment of initial map = end of October 2021 – 45 days to realign = mid-December 2021

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Additional Census 2020 concerns and

  • pportunities for engagement
  • Concerns about redistricting data quality:

– Differential Privacy and new Disclosure Avoidance System – Creation of CVAP block-level dataset for redistricting purposes

  • New, just released Memorandum re: census & Exclusion of undocumented

persons from apportionment base

  • “Withdrawal” of request for delivery delay; Pushing for more money for a

“speedier” NRFU

  • Sequencing of PL-file delivery

– The Census Bureau plans to provide P.L.-files to the states on a rolling basis, as it has historically done. – The Census Bureau has already been engaging with NCSL and state legislatures to assess which states to prioritize for earlier release (likely to start mid-June)

  • Ongoing GOTC efforts needed!

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QUESTIONS?

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Contact Information

Karuna Ramachandran Director of Statewide Partnerships, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Atlanta

kramachandran@advancingjustice-atlanta.org

Justin Valas Policy Director, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Chicago

jvalas@advancingjustice-chicago.org

Julia Marks Staff Attorney, Voting Rights and Census, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus

juliam@advancingjustice-alc.org

Steven Ochoa National Redistricting Coordinator, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund sochoa@MALDEF.org

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Contact Information

Terry Ao Minnis Senior Director of Census and Voting Programs, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Bessie Chan-Smitham Director of Community Engagement, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Raima Roy Program Associate, Census and Civic Engagement, Asian Americans Advancing Justice | AAJC Census@advancingjustice-aajc.org

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