Mid-decade Redistricting

All states that have more than the minimum of one congressional district—meaning forty-three under the apportionment of seats following the 2010 census—must conduct congressional redistricting once each decade, based on the population statistics that emerge from the census conducted every ten years in the year ending in 0. Under a series of Supreme Court decisions dating back to the one-person, one-vote rulings of the 1960s, districts within each state must be redrawn so their populations are as near to zero deviation as possible. State lawmakers often use redistricting to address political goals; these include providing opportunities for their party to gain seats or increasing political security for incumbents of one or both major parties.

The district maps in almost all circumstances are completed prior to the first congressional elections in each decade, held in the year ending in 2 (though Maine regularly performs its remap in the year ending in 3). Until recently, at least from the late 1800s forward, the only times states revised already implemented redistricting plans in the middle of a decade were when they were under court orders to do so, almost always because of population inequality among districts or because the existing map was deemed to violate the rights of voters on the basis of race. (See racial redistricting.)

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Nothing in the Constitution or federal law barred mid-decade redistricting, but an unspoken compact between the parties prevailed until the first decade of the twenty-first century, when Republicans used their control of the state legislatures in Colorado, Georgia, and Texas to enact partisan, mid-decade redistricting plans.

The Colorado plan failed. In early 2003 Republicans, having just taken full control of the Colorado legislature, redrew the district map to supersede a map implemented by a state court ruling prior to the 2002 elections following a stalemate in the legislature. The new map mainly sought to boost Republican strength in suburban Denver's Seventh District, which Republican Bob Beauprez won by just 121 votes in 2002. Prior to the 2004 elections, a state court struck down the plan on grounds that the state constitution barred redistricting from taking place more than once per decade.

Texas state senator Rodney Ellis meets reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to discuss Texas redistricting in 2003. AP Images/Tyler Mallory

The mid-decade redistricting in Georgia succeeded, though with limited immediate impact. In a major breakthrough in a state where Democrats had dominated state government for more than a century, Republicans in 2004 won control of the state house of representatives to go with their already existing majority in the state senate. They used that advantage almost immediately to revoke a Democratic-drawn congressional map and replace it with one of their own. The thrust was to make the reelection prospects of two Democratic incumbents marginally more difficult: John Barrow's home political base was removed from his district, and Jim Marshall saw his district extended to include the home base of former Republican representative Mac Collins, who challenged Marshall in the 2006 election. Barrow and Marshall both survived their 2006 contests, however, albeit by narrow margins.

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