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Prof. Justin Levitt's Doug Spencer's Guide to Drawing the Electoral Lines

National Summary

The 2021 redistricting cycle is underway. As with each new cycle, there’s new uncertainty: how the timing of Census data delivery will affect districting deadlines (including litigation about those deadlines); questions about who may serve as a commissioner to draw the lines; and even a controversy over a presidential memorandum on the apportionment count, later rescinded by a new administration, with several lawsuits filed in the meantime.

In the 2011 cycle, courts struck all or part of congressional plans in five states, and drew the lines themselves in twelve states.  And courts struck all or part of state legislative plans in thirteen states, and drew the lines themselves in eight states.  Now, in 2021, some states have different institutions in charge of the redistricting process, and in others, a set of actors with a different partisan mix is in control.  The courts will likely still be busy.

Who Draws the Lines?




This map shows the institution with primary responsibility for drawing district lines.
This map shows the partisan alignment of the institution with responsibility for drawing district lines.
This map shows where the districting plan currently stands in each state.
This map shows the institution that drew the current district lines.

Party Control | Congress Lines

Control Across All States

Control By State

The table below shows the partisan control of bodies controlling Congress lines in the 2010 redistricting cycle. The first three column headers are sortable; click on the header to sort the data.

CSV

Download the table with full data about all cycles.

State Seats Legal Default Control Last Drawn By Control Governor Upper House Lower House