This memorandum documents specific updates made to the plan for the Redistricting Data Program Operation (RDP) since the release of the Redistricting Data Program Detailed Operational Plan (DOP) on April 5, 2018. COVID-19-related delays and prioritizing the delivery of the apportionment results delayed the original plan to deliver the 2020 Census Redistricting Data (Public Law 94-171) to the states by April 1, 2021. Updates were made to the RDP Phase 3 Data Delivery workflow in order to deliver the high-quality data the states need for legislative and congressional redistricting in a timely manner. These updates, summarized below, are provided to ensure accurate final documentation is available to the public.

The RDP provided the redistricting data tabulations to the official state recipients and to the public in the legacy format on August 12, 2021. The RDP provided the same redistricting data with easier-to-use data tools to official state recipients on removable media and to both the official state recipients and the public on data.census.gov on September 16, 2021.

During the 2000 and 2010 decennial cycles, the RDP concurrently released the redistricting data to the states in the legacy format and on removable media (with easier-to-use data tools). The RDP planned to deliver both formats concurrently during the 2020 cycle as well. However, in recognition of the difficulties the delayed data delivery timeline created for states with approaching redistricting and election deadlines, the Census Bureau made the determination that the redistricting data could be released in the legacy format by August 2021, prior to the delivery of the removable media (with easier-to-use data tools) and release to data.census.gov in September 2021.

The legacy format redistricting data consist of four pipe-delimited text files (including a geoheader file and three data segment files featuring the six Public Law 94-171 tables). The legacy format files contained the identical data to the files delivered in September. They were fully reviewed and subject to the same quality assurance processes. The legacy format summary files required additional handling and software to properly extract the data of interest, while the September release included easier-to-use tools to access, view, and download the data.

Since the redistricting data tabulations were released in the legacy format to the official state recipients and the public on August 12, 2021, there was no longer a need to coordinate and authorize the release of each state’s data products to an embargoed environment on the Census Bureau’s website. Therefore, the embargoed data release was removed from the operation.

The redistricting data tabulations were released in the legacy format for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico on the same day (August 12, 2021). The tabulations were mailed to all official state and state equivalent recipients on removable media for receipt on September 16, 2021, and were released for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to data.census.gov that same day.