​Submission Date

Plan submissions received by close of business on September 24, 2021 will be available to the Commission for their consideration. Anyone wishing to submit proposals for which they want to provide live testimony at a Round 2 public meeting, should submit their map(s) no later than noon on September 17, 2021.  

All Plan proposals received by the Commission become part of the public record. Plan proposals will be available for public inspection and viewable at this website​.

Plan proposals must be based on one of two geographies:

1. 2020 Census blocks
2. 2020 Census VTDs (Maryland Election Precincts)

Plans based on the assignment of 2020 Census blocks should include a Block Assignment File.  This is a data file assigning each Census block to a specified congressional or state legislative district.

Plans based on the assignment of 2020 precincts to congressional or state legislative districts must include a VTD Assignment File. This is a data file assigning each VTD to a specified district. Each geography must be assigned in their entirety to the proposed district.  If a Plan requires that a precinct is split, and the specified precinct parts are assigned to different proposed districts, a Block Assignment File must be used to prepare the Plan. The data is available as an Excel spreadsheet, comma separated text (CSV), shapefile, or geodatabase format.  

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​Block Assignment Files – Figure 1, below, shows the Block Assignment file. At a minimum, the following two fields must appear in the file: 

• Column 1 represents the unique statewide code for the Census block (BLOCK); 
• Column 2 represents the district to which the block is assigned in the Plan (DISTRICTID).

Figure 1. Block Assignment File​

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VTD Assignment Files – Figure 2, below, shows the VTD Assignment File used to prepare a precinct level Plan submission. At a minimum, the following two (2) fields must appear in the file: 

• Column 1 represents the unique Maryland precinct code (VTD); 
• Column 2 represents the legislative district to which the precinct is assigned in the submitted Plan (District)
  

Figure 2. VTD Assignment File

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A ​Block Assignment File or VTD Assignment File plan proposal must be submitted as an electronic file.

Block and VTD data files are available for download here

Within five business days after receiving the Plan proposal via email or mail, an acknowledgement of receipt including plan identifier, will be sent.

Acknowledgement

By submitting a plan you acknowledge that the submission is complete and in compliance with the aforementioned guidelines and includes all required files and supporting documentation. The Commission will not undertake the task of identifying and merging a Plan that is provided over multiple submissions or with missing or incomplete information.

Disclaimer

In formulating and making recommendations to the Governor, the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission is under no obligation to comment on or make use of any submitted Plan proposals. The Commission may as it deems appropriate use a submitted Plan proposal in its entirety, use a portion of a submitted Plan proposal, or make no use of a submitted Plan proposal​

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