Late census data puts House 2022 campaigns in limbo
by Mica Soellner, Breaking News Reporter |
| March 08, 2021 06:30 AM
A key factor in who wins the House majority, how lines are drawn for the bulk of its 435 districts, may not be clear until later this year. And that's adding an element of chaos to the 2022 election cycle.
It's not even clear at this point how many House seats each state will have in the 435-member chamber. That's because the U.S. Census Bureau in February announced that processing of data needed to allocate House seats, based on population, would be pushed back from March 31 until Sept. 30. COVID-19 is largely to blame for the delays, as census-takers couldn't as easily as in previous years knock on doors and count the U.S. population, as mandated by the Constitution every 10 years.
That's putting a lot of politics on hold amid an already pitched battle for control of the House, where Democrats have 221 seats, compared to Republicans' 211. Three seats are vacant in the House, where 218 makes for a majority.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/census-delays-on-redistricting-data-putting-politics-at-a-freeze
