INDIANAPOLIS — State legislators — and the watchdog groups that follow what they do — may get a head start on the once-in-a-decade assignment of political mapmaking.
The U.S. Census Bureau is expected to release detailed Census 2010 data to Indiana and four other states this week — a month earlier than the March release date that followed the 2000 Census.
The release of the data — which includes population, race, and voting-age information down to the block level — triggers the start of a fast-track process to create Indiana’s new legislative and congressional district maps.
More eyes may be on that process, aided by technology that makes it possible for almost anyone with access to the Internet to scrutinize what legislators will be doing.
“It’s a huge undertaking,” said state Rep. Kathy Kreag Richardson, a Republican from Noblesville who, as vice chair of the House Elections and Apportionment Committee, serves as a point person for her party on redistricting.
The goal, she said, is to redraw the political boundaries to accommodate the shifts in Indiana’s population – which grew 6.6 percent over the last decade — to come up with equal-sized districts that represent fairly the state’s voting population.
“If you draw fair districts, it’s much easier for it to be accepted,” Richardson said. “That’s the key. That’s our goal.”
But as Richardson also noted, fairness may be in the eye of the beholder. Ten years ago, when Democrats were in power in the Statehouse, minority Republicans accused them of gerrymandering – drawing maps to favor the political party in power.
Republican leaders in the Statehouse may come under pressure by their members to do the same thing this time. But it may be harder to achieve, thanks in part to advances in technology.
All the Census data information set to be released this week to legislative leaders and Gov. Mitch Daniels will be posted within 24 hours to a Census Bureau website for public consumption.
Among those who plan to access the information is the Indiana Citizens Redistricting Commission, a watchdog group organized by a coalition of Common Cause Indiana, the League of Women Voters, AARP and others.
The commission has partnered with the Public Mapping Project, (www.public mapping.org) on a plan to use open-source software to give citizens access to the same demographic, political and geographic information that legislators will use to draw the new maps.
The software program, which the commission hopes to have up and running by early to mid-March, would also allow users to create their own set of redistricting maps that they could propose to their state legislators.
Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, said the technology has the potential to “take the mystery” out of what she describes as a “shadowy process.”
Carol O. Rogers, deputy director of the Indiana Business Research Center and the governor’s liaison to the Census Bureau, said there will be unprecedented access to census information on which the redistricting maps will be based. “It’s the first time ever that it will so easy for people to access that information over the web,” said Rogers.
Apart from the partisan politics involved, the sheer amount of information that has to be waded through is cumbersome.
The amount of census data material that will be available to legislators and the public will be “massive,” said Mark Stratton, co-manager of the Office of Census Data in the Legislative Services Agency, the non-partisan research arm of state legislature.
The Census Bureau has promised to post much of the information after it’s received by the state, making it available to the public online to a download site, factfinder2.census.gov.
Much of the information will also be available through STATS Indiana.