the 1980 census for use in legislative redistricting. The Director of the Census Bureau invited each State Governor, Secretary of State, and the majority and minority leaders of all State legislatures to meet with the Census Bureau to discuss their needs for 1980 census data and data products.
At the same time, reflecting State and congressional concerns about data for redistricting, the Congress passed H.R. 1753, which was enacted as Public Law (P.L.) 94-171 in late December 1975. This law directed the Secretary of Commerce to issue a set of technical criteria, by April 1, 1976, for States to follow in specifying the geographic entities for which they wished to receive data tabulations. Second, the law also required the States to submit these geographic plans to the Secretary for consideration no later than April 1, 1977. Finally, the law required the Secretary of Commerce to transmit the population counts to the Governor and public bodies having initial responsibility for legislative districting in all States by April 1, 1981—one year after census day. The Secretary of Commerce delegated all responsibilities assigned by the legislation to the Census Bureau. The text of the P.L. 94-171 is shown in Figure 14-1.
Responding to the requirements of P.L. 94-171, on March 31, 1976, the Census Bureau issued cartographic criteria for States to follow in designing geographic plans that it would use as the basis on which to tabulate the 1980 counts. By mid-1976, the Census Bureau had discussed these requirements with legislative officials in each State to solicit their interest in participating in this voluntary program.
The NCSL also drafted model legislation, which each State could adopt or modify to fit its situation, to help ensure that the boundaries of election precincts (or similar areas) in the State followed visible ground features or the limits of legally defined entities for which the Census Bureau normally would tabulate data. The model legislation helped States design election precincts that would conform to the Census Bureau’s guidelines for boundaries to be used in preparing data tabulations.
Voting Districts14-5
