U.S. Census data delays could cause potential county redistricting issues, county officials report

SYCAMORE – If DeKalb County Board members don’t change redistricting code soon, the delay in local governments receiving U.S. Census data for 2020 might throw a wrench in creating new district voting maps for DeKalb County, county officials confirmed this week.

Sheila Santos, information technology director for DeKalb County, said during the County Board Committee of the Whole meeting on Wednesday the U.S. Census Bureau officially announced the delayed release in the state’s redistricting data from the 2020 census.

“It was originally slated to be released in April,” Santos said. “And that date has now been pushed back ... to Sept. 30.”

Santos said the problem is that Illinois state law currently says County Board districts have to be adopted explicitly by July, as opposed to days or weeks after counties receive the redistricting census data. So this puts a kink into the county’s timeline to get those new district maps created, she said.

“At this point, we don’t quite know what that will be, but we’ll be watching how the state reacts and adjust accordingly,” Santos said.

The County Board adopted a fair map ordinance a few years ago and that was added to county code, which set parameters that need to be met for redistricting. Some of the criteria that has to be met includes the county meeting a 3% quotient, a 5% ideal population and an 8% range variance.

Santos said she thinks the criteria outlined in the county code – which must be met currently, otherwise the maps can’t be adopted – could still be the goal in creating these new maps. She said she thinks the county might be in better shape if the code language is changed just slightly to strive to meet the goal but not make it a necessity to do so.

“But I worry that, the way it’s worded, we will end up in a position where we will not be able to adopt any of the maps,” Santos said.

The update comes after county officials previously discussed the redistricting obstacles during a March 3 county finance committee meeting.

Santos said county officials have a general idea of where census blocks fall, since they have at least received 2020 geographical data from the bureau. However, she said, the county doesn’t have the more current population numbers to fill those blocks.

Santos said the county typically receives that data within the first few months of the year. That way, the county has plenty of time to prepare those redistricting maps, she said.

Without new district maps to adopt, county officials previously said, all county board members could possibly end up running countywide in future elections and not just by each individual district.

Santos previously explained the three calculations within the county code criteria are meant to help get as close to the ideal number as possible. She said county officials took those parameters set in that ordinance, ran the numbers on all six of the county’s 2010 contender maps and data that goes along with them and every single one failed to meet the criteria and therefore would not meet county code.

Santos said when you look at county population of 105,000 people, you have census blocks that might have 100 or 200 people in them and you shift them from one district to the other, you all of the sudden cannot meet the criteria. In order to strive to meet that, you might end up splitting up a subdivision or another area that you would not want to split, she said.

The geographic census data at least gives the county an idea of where things fall and what changes might’ve occurred in the county since the 2010 census, Santos said. In the meantime, the county is doing some preliminary work with what they have so far and they will train the three people drawing the maps – the county’s administrator, the community development coordinator and highway engineer – on the tools that were developed to create the maps while they wait for the remaining census data to come in.