Redistricting Congressional and State Legislative Districts - A Proposal for an Essential-Data Count of the Resident Population for the Decennial Census and 21st Century Census Information Platform

James Madison proposed that the census collect information beyond an enumeration of the population. Congress agreed and amended the Census Act of 1790 to allow for the addition of questions about age, gender, and race. The decennial census has asked additional questions since then, going far beyond those needed for apportionment. We propose to return the decennial census in 2030 to its original focus to fully enumerate the population for apportionment through an Essential-Data Count of the Resident Population. This would be connected to a 21st Century Census Information Platform designed to provide continuous measurements over the decade through the augmentation of the 2020 decennial census with multi-source federal and private sector data sources. This would be designed to provide continuous measurements for redistricting, use in the allocation of federal funds, and many other uses. Here we describe the feasibility of this proposal in the context of redistricting.
We examined relevant documents and concluded that there are no constitutional, legislative, or legal barriers to redistricting with this proposal for the 2030 Census. In fact, the proposal is expected to improve the redistricting process through the availability of timelier data that keeps pace with current societal changes and provides continuous measurements that preserve privacy and are fair, accurate, and of high quality, while ensuring equal voting participation in our democracy.

Keller S, Shipp S. Redistricting Congressional and State Legislative Districts - A Proposal for an Essential-Data Count of the Resident Population for the Decennial Census and 21st Century Census Information Platform. Technical Report TR 2022-023. Proceedings of the Biocomplexity Institute, University of Virginia. 2021. https://doi.org/10.18130/qyme-ty93

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Grants G-2019-11316 and G-2020-14002