Census 2000 Redistricting Data Program

Following the "one-person, one-vote" court decision in the 1960's, state legislatures found 1970 census small geographic areas to have boundaries that did not coincide with voting district lines. This frustrated their efforts to merge local voting behavior data with small-area census counts to create legislative districts with balanced populations.

In 1972, the Census Bureau, National Legislative Conference, Congress, and state officials began to design a 1980 census program to meet this critical need. Public Law 94-171, which amended the Census Law (Title 13, United States Code,) was enacted by Congress in 1975. The purpose of this law is to provide state legislatures with small-area census population totals for legislative redistricting.

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