Illinois House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch and Senate President Don Harmon issued a joint proclamation calling on the Legislature to convene on August 31 for a one-day special session to make changes in the new state legislative district map after official 2020 population numbers were released last week by the U.S. Census Bureau.

The House and Senate approved the state legislative map on May 28 with only Democratic votes, and Gov. JB Pritzker signed the map into law on June 4.

Republicans have filed a lawsuit in federal court to invalidate the map and give the redistricting commission remapping authority, claiming if a valid redistricting plan with the full force and effect of law was not completed by June 30, the Illinois Constitution shifts the responsibility for drafting a plan from the General Assembly to a redistricting commission.

The apportionment of seats for the U.S. House of Representatives, based on the newly released 2020 U.S. Census data, will soon be updated for the 118th Congress, which convenes in January 2023. On April 26, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo delivered the U.S. Census population count results to President Joseph Biden for use in apportioning the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Texas will gain two seats in the House, while Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina, and Oregon will each gain one seat.

California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia will each lose one seat.

The remaining states’ number of seats will remain the same.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced the resident population of the United States increased overall by 7.4%.

On January 24, Rep. Warren Davidson introduced a resolution proposing an amendment to the U.S. Constitution providing members of the House of Representatives be apportioned among only U.S. citizens.

House Joint Resolution 34, the Fair Representation Amendment, would eliminate the practice of counting noncitizens during each census, counting only citizens for apportionment of representatives and electoral votes.

“Proper census calculations are needed to ensure that every citizen’s vote counts,” says Davidson in his press release. Davidson first introduced the legislation in the last Congress.

Currently, the census counts everyone residing in the U.S., including individuals employed, working, and residing legally in the country.

The U.S. Population has been increasing since the establishment of our nation. Regional populations across the United States have grown and have shrunk for a variety of different reasons ranging from the 1849 gold rush to urbanization that began in the U.S. in the 1900’s.

This week’s Highlighted Site Of The Week is Mapping the 2010 U.S. Census from The New York Times. This site contains 12 interactive maps which use demographic information collected by the 2010 Census.

These maps are divided up by county and show demographics of population, ethnic distribution, and vacant housing units. For their respective topic, each map shows the percent change in 2010 from statistics gathered from the 2000 census.

It’s very interesting and informative to browse through the United States and see the different population and ethnic distributions  compared to what existed in 2000.

Everyone have a great weekend!

Last December, the U.S. Census Bureau released the results of the 2010 Census. Officially, there are 308,745, 538 people living in the United States. The number is quite important in deciding where federal and state funding will go and also in deciding U.S. congressional apportionment – the process of dividing the 435 congressional seats among the 50 states based on each states’ population as counted in the census.

Wondering how your state fared in the 2010 Census? The U.S. Census Bureau published an interactive map of the census data and the Apportionment data. Our state, Ohio, lost two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives this time around.

The apportionment process is mandated in the U.S. Constitution in Article I, Section 2 and then superseded in Section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment. By the way, when they first began the apportionment process in 1790, there were 4 million people living in the U.S. and the ratio was 33,000 people per congressional district. Now it is estimated that there are 700,000 citizens per congressional district.

Lobby Comply reader Nancy Messmore pointed me in the direction of the U.S. Census Bureau and the 2010 Census results. As a librarian, she pointed out that the U.S. Census Bureau has a partnership program and the American Library Association (ALA) was one of the key partners. Thanks to this program, the 2010 Census became more of a grassroots effort and less of a top-down government task. Thanks to the partner organizations, the 2010 Census was able to boast of a 74% mail-back participation rate. The ALA offers a great fact sheet for educators (and one for communities) about the census and its importance.

If you are wondering how the U.S. congressional apportionment is calculated, it is easy, really. Here is the formula. Well, alright, maybe not so easy.

Instead, here is a video by the U.S. Census Bureau explaining the process:

Take care and have a good weekend!