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(INDIANAPOLIS) — Indiana’s new congressional and legislative districts probably won’t be drawn

until this fall.

The Census Bureau announced last month it doesn’t expect to deliver population data until

September 30. That’s more than six months late, and just three months before the January 5 start

of candidate filing begins for next year’s election. It’s also long after the legislature adjourns for the

year, with the task of drawing new maps still unfinished.

House Speaker Todd Huston (R-Fishers) and Senate Presidenet Pro Tem Rod Bray (R-

Martinsville) say they’re exploring different options for bringing legislators back. Bray says the

most obvious option is for Governor Holcomb to call a special session.

Legislators are working on a bill which allows them to call themselves into session, a measure

Holcomb contends is unconstitutional. But that bill is confined to situations where a governor has

declared an emergency, and wouldn’t apply to redistricting.

Huston says legislators have received some estimates already, which allows them to get a head

start on map-drawing in hopes of keeping the eventual special session as short as possible.

Bray says legislators are likely to insert a provision in the budget bill to avoid triggering a state law

which punts congressional maps to a panel of four legislators and one Holcomb appointee if the

legislature adjourns without approving new districts. Republicans’ supermajorities in the House

and Senate mean they’ll control the redistricting process no matter what, but sending the maps to

the commission would shut Democrats out of the process entirely. Bray has said the full

legislature should handle redistricting, and the law doesn’t address state House and Senate

districts anyway.

On Thursday, the House rejected on procedural grounds a Democratic attempt to assign both

state and federal redistricting to an independent, nonpartisan commission.

Indiana is expected to have nine U.S. House seats, the same as it has now. The Census Bureau

says it plans to finalize those counts by April 30, four months late.