Census delays, governor’s veto squeeze redistricting timeline

Gov. Tony Evers’ veto of a bill to delay the drawing of new local political maps until 2023 means that a process that usually takes half a year will be condensed into about two and a half months, Oconto County Administrator Kevin Hamann told the county board July 22.

The districts are redrawn every 10 years after the U.S. Census Bureau releases data from its decennial count of the number of people living in the United States. That report usually comes out in March or April, but the census has delayed its release until mid-August — blaming pandemic pressures, Hamann said.

Evers’ July 9 veto means the deadline for having new maps remains Dec. 1, when candidates may start circulating nomination papers for the spring election using the new district boundaries. In order to meet requirements for holding public hearings and publishing notices about the plan, that means the final plan needs to be approved in early November, Hamann said.

“So instead of the normal 60 days for us to develop and prepare a plan, and then another 60 days for municipalities to respond to that, and then another 60 days for us to make all the changes and develop a final plan, we are now down to about 75 days to get this done,” he said.

The Executive Committee will review a timeline Aug. 2 that will show 24 days to prepare the plan, about 35 days for municipalities to respond and about two weeks to complete the process.

The condensed timeline means that notices for public hearings about the plan will have to be published before the plan is actually available for review, Hamann said.

“That’s really not appropriate,” he said. “But in order to comply with the law, that’s what we have to do.”

The county board will have to hold a special meeting in early November to approve the final map so that it can be published in a timely fashion, Hamann said.

“This is going to be extremely difficult,” he said. “We are going to cut corners as best we can without completely ignoring the law … but that’s the situation we have been put in by the federal census bureau, as well as by the state government.”

Hamann said it’s a frustrating situation.

“I was very disappointed the governor vetoed the legislation, but it is what it is and we’re stuck with it, and we’re going to ram through the new maps,” he said. “It’s not how it should be, but we’re going to do the best we can.”