By Brandon Moseley
The Alabama Secretary of State’s office released new district maps for the State of Alabama.
The Secretary of State’s Office was tasked by the Alabama Legislature with ensuring that the new Congressional, State Senate, State House, and State Board of Education maps are available to the public. Secretary of State John H. Merrill (R) directed the office to develop the web pages for the maps.
Merrill stated, “We are pleased to announce the development of these web pages, which will fulfill the duty assigned to our office by the legislature and provide the public with a user-friendly resource.”
Recently, the Alabama Legislature met for the second Special Legislative Session of 2021 to discuss redistricting, healthcare-related pandemic appropriations, and other matters. The new maps were prepared by the Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and introduced in the Special Session on Thursday, Oct. 28. Both Houses of the legislature considered the new maps and then sent them to Gov. Kay Ivey (R) for her consideration. Ivey signed them into law Friday.
Every 10 years the Constitution requires the U.S. Census Bureau to do a new Census. Congress, state legislatures, and state school boards are then reapportioned and redistricted according to the migration patterns that occurred in the previous decade. This process was much more compressed than in previous censuses because the Census Bureau released its results over five months late, necessitating getting the redistricting maps passed and approved by the legislature by Nov. 15, ahead of the 2022 elections. Election qualifying will open in December.
To view the maps in more detail and get more information, click here.
The next Census will be in 2030 and the state legislature will prepare Alabama’s next redistricting plan before the 2032 congressional elections and the 2034 state elections.
