December 21, 2022

Congress/state legislative district boundaries switchover on January 3

Redistricted boundaries will become default on January 3, 2023.

The bottom line:

  • If you have an API integration that uses cd118 or stateleg-next, the new districts will be automatically returned, as if you were appending cd or stateleg.
  • If you upload spreadsheets, you can just use the default appends for each category instead of using the drop-down to select the new districts.
  • Legislator data for the 118th Congress will be updated in mid-January.

Background

We've selected January 3rd as it's when the 118th Congress will be sworn in, and is when the earliest state legislature will convene. We also figure most people will be back from the holidays at that point.

API

Congress: On January 3rd, boundaries for the 2023-2025 Congress, i.e. the 118th Congress, will become the default when you request Congressional districts via the cd append.

Until this point, they have been available by specifically requesting it as cd118. If your app specifically requests cd118, we will return a mirror of cd.

District boundaries for the now-sitting Congress, i.e. the 117th Congress, will continue to be available by specifically requesting it as cd117.

Congressional legislator data for the 118th will be available in mid-January. Historical legislator data will not be available.

State legislatures: New state legislative district boundaries will become the default when you append stateleg. Until January 3rd, they will be available as stateleg-next.

stateleg-next will return to being an as-required append. (It will still exist as a mirror of stateleg until there are redistricting updates that are time-delayed because of elections.)

See our API docs for more on using the Congressional and state legislative data enrichments.

Spreadsheet Uploads

Congress: Until January 3rd, you will need to continue using the drop-down to select districts for the 118th Congress.

After that, districts for the 118th will be appended by default, and you'll need to use the drop-down if you need districts for the 117th.

Congressional legislator data will be available in mid-January.

State legislative districts: The new districts will be returned by default. The previous districts will not be available.

We're continuing to track redistricting updates

We're continuing to track redistricting updates. Montana, for example, has not completed state legislative district updates and is not expected to do so until March. Texas, meanwhile, will be drawing districts again in 2023. And court cases are ongoing in several states.

We're tracking all of these updates and will continue updating districts as needed.

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