2021 Redistricting Data

Andrew Drechsler filed this request with the House of Representatives of Missouri.
Submitted July 8, 2021
Status
Completed

Communications

From: Andrew Drechsler

Subject: The Missouri Sunshine Law Request: 2021 Redistricting Data

Email

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the The Missouri Sunshine Law, I hereby request the following records:

Any raw data that the House Special Committee on Redistricting has used or will use as part of the decennial redistricting process following the 2020 Census to draw draft and/or final district maps for the Missouri House of Representatives, Missouri State Senate, and U.S. Congressional districts, which could include any of the following:

-Primary, general, and special election results for any elections state legislative, US congressional, statewide candidate or ballot measure between 2011-2020
-Primary, general, and special election precinct boundaries for any elections between 2011-2020
-Voter registration and turnout data between 2011-2020
-Incarcerated population reallocation data
-Candidate and incumbent address data
-Population projections
-Voter file data

As well as any other data used by the Missouri House of Representatives in preparing draft or final maps.

In addition to the raw data, which means the original data collected before it has been processed, transformed, or otherwise altered, I hereby request any documentation describing how the raw data was collected and processed for use in map drawing, as well as any internal communication among elected officials and/or government employees about data preparation, management, cleaning, formatting, or otherwise changing or manipulating the data, or about map drawing.

The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.

In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 3 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Andrew Drechsler

From: House of Representatives

Subject: Request for records

Email

Mr. Drechsler,

I received on June 15, 2022, two requests for records that appear to be duplicates, dated June 2, 2022, referring to a request dated July 8, 2021, concerning Congressional redistricting. My office is reviewing the request. Please allow an additional two weeks, until June 29, 2022, for a formal response to be provided.

Thank you,

Bryan D. Scheiderer
General Counsel
Missouri House of Representatives
(573) 522-2639

From: House of Representatives

Subject: Request for records

Email

Mr. Drechsler,

I received on June 15, 2022, two requests for records that appear to be duplicates, both dated June 2, 2022, referring to a request dated July 8, 2021, concerning redistricting.

As directed by the Missouri Constitution, the Missouri General Assembly is not involved in state senate or state representative redistricting. The General Assembly did in 2022 pass HB 2909 concerning Congressional redistricting. The bill page may be found here:

https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB2909&year=2022&code=R

In addition, HB 2117 (2022) was a similar bill (although not passed), which can be found here:

https://house.mo.gov/Bill.aspx?bill=HB2117&year=2022&code=R

The bill page for both bills will contain any prior drafts and amendments that were made public during the legislative process.

You asked for “raw data” and “any other data” used to draw draft or final maps. I am attaching a zip file to this email, which contains the Shapefile and Block Equivalency file use to create the final version of HB 2909.

We can also provide the set of data files provided by Caliper as part of the Maptitude software package (which I understand to be Census data) with some additional data provided by the Missouri State Demographer, of the Office of Administration. To produce these fairly large data files, we would request prepayment of one hour of time ($27.65 per hour) for staff to search for and retrieve the files, and the cost of an usb drive ($5). If this is acceptable, send a check or money order in the amount of $32.65 made payable to the “House Revolving Fund” to my attention at the following address: House of Representatives, 201 West Capitol Avenue, Room B‐36, Jefferson City, MO 65101.

You also asked for communications between elected officials. The House of Representatives is not the custodian of records of individual representatives. The Missouri Constitution, Article III, Section 19, states that “Each member of the general assembly is the custodian of legislative records under the custody and control of the member, their employees and staff.” The names and office addresses of members of the House of Representatives are located on the House website:

https://house.mo.gov/MemberRoster.aspx

Any other such requested records, including communications with House administrative staff or draft maps not made public as part of the legislative process, are considered legislative and attorney work product, and as such are closed records pursuant to the provisions of the House Rules, the Missouri Constitution, Article III, Sections 18 & 20, and Chapter 610, RSMo., including § 610.021(1) & (14).

Please contact me if you have any further questions.

Bryan D. Scheiderer
General Counsel
Missouri House of Representatives
(573) 522-2639

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