by Stephen Simpson, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

August 15th, 2021

LITTLE ROCK — The U.S. Census Bureau released its 2020 raw data figures on Thursday, but state officials say they have a long way to go before they are ready to publish maps for redistricting this year.

Shelby Johnson, geographic information officer for the Arkansas Geographic Information Systems Office, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on Thursday that it likely will take about 10 days to process the census information.

“The software provider that provides the redistricting software that we are using to support the Board of Apportionment will download the Arkansas file when it’s published by the Census Bureau,” he said. “When it’s processed and ready for use in their redistricting software, then we will update our software that is ready to use that format.”

The state Board of Apportionment redraws legislative districts based on population changes. Congressional districts are redrawn by the state Legislature.

Johnson said the board is optimistic that the software vendor will be able to make the information readable fairly soon, but doesn’t want to make any promises.

Read the full article HERE.

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