IDAHO LIBRARIANS' ROLE IN CENSUS REDISTRICTING

The 2001-2
Redistricting Project
in Idaho and How
Librarians Made a
Difference

Lily Wai, Elaine Watson, and Stephen Woods

For the first time in the State of Idaho, ten libraries from around the State were invited to participate directly in the politically charged Census 2000 redistricting process.  Through legislative funding, the State of Idaho provided libraries with computer equipment and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) software to enable citizens to create and submit congressional and legislative plans through their local libraries.                 

Background on Federal Apportionment & Redistricting Law 

The Constitution of the United States directs Congress to determine the number of representatives that each state may elect to the House of Representatives.  To assist Congress in this process, provision for a census was included in the Constitution for determining the population of each state every ten years.  The process of allocating the number of seats in the House of Representatives to each state is commonly known as apportionment. 

Redistricting is traditionally defined as the act of redrawing congressional district boundaries within a state; however, states typically also redraw state legislative boundaries at the same time.  The redistricting process came under a tremendous amount of scrutiny by the Supreme Court and Congress in the 1960s regarding two major issues that are still being debated. 

 “One man one vote” required that legislative and congressional boundaries be of “substantially equal” size.  The Supreme Court eventually defined equal size as a range of less then ten percent.  Another issue addressed by Congress in the Voting Rights Act of 1965 concerned the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities in the drawing of redistricting boundaries.   

Background on Redistricting in Idaho  

Historically, the Idaho State Legislature accomplished redistricting by drawing legislative and congressional boundaries based on counties and assigning the appropriate number of representatives.  However, with the mandate of the United States Supreme Court to create substantially equal districts, this practice no longer was sufficient.   

In the 1970s, the Idaho Legislature drew boundaries based on voting districts as well as county lines.  This method worked until the plan was challenged in the 1980s, and declared unconstitutional by the  Idaho Supreme Court, based on the Idaho State Constitution's provision to keep counties intact.  The Idaho legislature failed to provide an alternative plan by the 1984 election so the Idaho Supreme Court took unprecedented power by mandating a court-designed plan in the 1980s.   

In the 1990s, the Idaho Legislature, in anticipation of the same problems, amended the Idaho Constitution allowing the division of counties.  They also appointed a joint committee dominated by the majority party to prepare a redistricting plan.  The 1994 Idaho legislature, dissatisfied with partisanship of this committee, decided to amend the Idaho Constitution to allow for the creation of a bi-partisan citizens’ commission for redistricting.  The Idaho Redistricting Commission sworn in on June 5, 2001 was composed of three Democrats and three Republicans and given 90 days to approve new congressional and legislative districts.   

The Commission faced a number of challenges of which three were notable.  According to the 2000 Census, Idaho’s population shifted from small rural communities and urban areas in southeast Idaho to growth in urban areas in southwest and northern Idaho creating political tension between urban and rural interests.  Furthermore, Hispanic population growth in southwestern Idaho and Native American reservations in Northern and Southeast Idaho raised concerns about diluting ethnic minority votes.  Finally, business interest in southwest and southeast Idaho had opposing views on the way that the congressional districts should be drawn based on the fact that the Boise Metro area in southwest Idaho could theoretically contain both members of congress.  

The potential problems related to diluting minority votes either through racial and language discrimination or discriminating against a partisan minority is a serious problem that can cause a plan to fail under the scrutiny of the Supreme Court.  However, a plan can also fail through gerrymandering, drawing odd shaped districts to create an unfair partisan advantage.         

How did the libraries get involved? 

It was in September 1999 that Ross Borden, Senior Budget and Policy Analyst at the Idaho State Legislative Office approached Lily Wai, Head of Government Documents and Project Director of INSIDE Idaho at the University of Idaho Library about involving libraries in the Census 2001 redistricting process.  

The new concept conceived by Borden was to provide each participating library in the state with the TIGER and PL 94-171 data plus GIS redistricting software to allow citizens to come into the libraries and actually draw their own legislative and/or congressional plans.  They could then transmit their plans to the Commission for consideration, or present them to the Commission when the Commission conducts its series of statewide hearings.  The Redistricting Commission appropriation would cover the costs for computer stations pre-installed with appropriate mapping software and data, and for library representatives to attend the GIS redistricting software training that would be provided to commissioners and staff.  

Subsequent meetings were held between the Legislative Office staff, the INSIDE Idaho team, and Idaho State Librarians to work out the logistics.  In March 2000, the Idaho Legislature approved the appropriation bill for the full $400,000 amount requested to support Idaho’s 2001 redistricting process.  The plan to involve the libraries in order to provide public access received overwhelming support.  The final plan included three parts: 

• INSIDE Idaho would host the Census PL 94-171 redistricting data and TIGER data in appropriate format.

• Ten Idaho depository libraries would be selected and receive a computer workstation pre-installed with the census data and redistricting software, and a color printer.  Library staff would be in charge of administering and enabling public use.

• The Idaho Legislative Services Office would make arrangements to provide basic redistricting software training to librarians and the Redistricting Commissioners.

In November 2000, a Memorandum of Agreement was signed by the key contacts in each of the ten libraries to officially commit them to participate in the Census 2001 redistricting process.  Idaho Department of Water Resources and a private consulting company, Spatial Dynamics, were contracted to prepare the redistricting data and to provide the training workshops to librarians and the Commissioners. 

Training workshop for librarians

In late April 2001, at the State capital in Boise, the Idaho Legislative Services Office provided three days of training to ten Public Access Libraries from across the state to facilitate the public’s involvement in the redistricting process for the intended June 1^st start date.  A mix of librarians from both public and academic libraries, and the State Library were present.  The Workshop included an historical overview of redistricting in Idaho, use of Arcview mapping software, and use of Autobound redistricting software. A redistricting website, including a discussion board, was set up on the INSIDE Idaho website (http://www.insideidaho.org) to facilitate communication between the ten libraries. 

As part of the agreement with the Commission on Redistricting, each library was required to make the computer available to the public and to provide training during the 90-day redistricting period.  At some libraries, staff created PowerPoint tutorials for training staff and citizens; these tutorials were later mounted on the INSIDE Idaho website for use by all participating Libraries.  

In larger academic libraries, group workshops and hands-on training were provided to interested reference staff.  Training for the public was entirely one-on-one with initial training taking from 1 to 1 ½ hours per person.   At some libraries, users signed up for their initial training and subsequent sessions.  In most cases, learning the redistricting software was easier for staff and citizens who had previous GIS experience using ArcView.   

Idaho Libraries’ Participation in the Redistricting Process 

During the three-month mandatory redistricting period, the residents in various regions of the state were able to create and submit plans to the Commission using any one of the ten Public Access Libraries.  Many of the libraries set up their redistricting computer in an easily accessible, public area of the library.  Because zip disks were required for storing plans, some libraries made zip disks available for purchase. Libraries were not required to advertise the redistricting computers, but some library staff did speak to the press, and academic library staff advertised the availability of the redistricting computers on their campuses. 

Final use statistics at the Public Access Libraries, compiled by the Idaho Legislative Services Office, are included in the tables below.

Usage Statistics at Public Access Libraries                                                        

Number of Plans Submitted

Use statistics were lower than anticipated and this can be attributed to several factors.  The largest deterrent to submitting a plan was the time involved, not only the time required to learn the redistricting software, but also the time required to create a plan.  The estimated time to create a new legislative plan was five hours or more.  Residents also had to purchase their own zip disk on which to save their plans, and a floppy disk for submitting the plan. 

Final Redistricting plans 

In early September, within the 90 day limit, Idaho’s Commission on Redistricting approved new legislative and congressional plans.  The Idaho Supreme Court rejected the Commission’s first legislative plan (Plan L66) because the population of some districts varied by more than 10% and no reasons were given for the deviation.  The Commission was ordered to reconvene and adopt another plan.  On March 1, 2002, the Idaho Supreme Court rejected the Commission’s second legislative plan (Plan L91) because it violated the 10% deviation and improperly divided counties.  The Commission was again ordered to reconvene.  On March 9, 2002, Idaho’s Commission on Redistricting approved a third plan (Plan L97).  On March 22 and 29^th, 2002, the Idaho Supreme Court denied petitions for challenges to Plan L97.  Thus it appears that the 2001-2002 redistricting in Idaho finally reached its conclusion and the newly redrawn legislative districts will be used until the 2012 elections. 

Conclusion 

Out of the 66 plans considered by the Idaho Redistricting Commission, 19 were drawn up by the citizens' groups and submitted through the libraries.  According to Analyst Ross Borden at the Idaho State Legislative Office, the citizen-submitted plans were useful to the Commission, particularly in the sense that they helped commissioners better understand how others defined communities of interest.  Certain elements of citizens’ plans were borrowed and incorporated into commissioners’ plans. 

Idaho libraries' participation in the redistricting process made a difference in the final outcome.  GIS technology and library access allowed citizens to participate directly and to evaluate the Commission's work via the Internet.  The redistricting process was no longer done in secret in closed rooms in the Statehouse, but was made fully accessible and understandable to the public. 

From the librarians’ perspective, it was a tremendous learning experience.  Librarians increased their GIS competencies otherwise beyond their reach; they gained exposure to the political process of redistricting; and they found new opportunities to promote the services of the library to their community. 

Will Idaho libraries be involved in Census 2010?  Analyst Ross Borden envisions “interactive, ubiquitous, Internet-based redistricting capability for the next go-round.”  He says that “it will still be necessary to have places where citizens can go to learn the rudiments of the process and system” and get assistance.  Borden foresees that libraries will play a similar central role in this important democratic process in the next Census redistricting.

 Acknowledgement: 

The authors wish to acknowledge the information provided by Ross Borden, Senior Budget & Policy Analyst at the Idaho State Legislative Office.