Congressional redistricting meetings scheduled

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma State Senate and the House of Representatives redistricting offices today announced the schedule for town hall meetings on the congressional redistricting process. Legislators and redistricting office staff will answer questions and take comments from the public during the meetings.

Five in-person town halls are scheduled – one in each congressional district. Two virtual town halls also will be held for those who can’t attend one of the in-person meetings.

The town hall meetings are scheduled for:

6 p.m., Thursday, July 8, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma State Capitol, 2300 N Lincoln Blvd, Room 535 
6 p.m., Tuesday, July 13, virtual, https://www.okhouse.gov/Publications/VirtualMeets.aspx 
6 p.m., Tuesday, July 20, Enid, Autry Technology Center, 1201 W Willow 
6 p.m., Thursday, July 22, Tulsa, Tulsa Technology Center, Riverside Campus, 801 E 91^st St. 
6 p.m., Tuesday, July 27, McAlester, Kiamichi Technology Center, 301 Kiamichi Drive 
6 p.m., Thursday, July 29, Lawton, City Hall, 212 SW 9^th St. 
6 p.m., Tuesday, Aug. 3, virtual, https://www.okhouse.gov/Publications/VirtualMeets.aspx

No signup required, and everyone is welcome.

Sen. Lonnie Paxton, R-Tuttle, is chair of the Senate Select Committee on Redistricting.

“Just as we did with legislative redistricting, the legislature is committed to an open and transparent process for congressional redistricting,” Paxton said. “We encourage those interested in the process to join us in-person or virtually to learn more about congressional redistricting.”

“It’s important that we have public comment in the redistricting process,” said Rep. Ryan Martinez, R-Edmond, the chair of the House Redistricting Committee. “This affects who will represent individual Oklahomans at the congressional level over the next decade. It’s important for the public’s voice be heard and that they have the opportunity to any question answered.”

By law, the Legislature must redraw its legislative and congressional district boundaries to reflect changes in population every ten years immediately following the decennial Census.

Census Bureau 2020 block-level data was delayed because of the pandemic. That data is needed to complete congressional redistricting. The Bureau has said it will be released to the state no later than Aug. 16.

The House and Senate were able to complete their legislative redistricting plans earlier this spring, with both being signed into law by the governor on May 13.

Congressional redistricting has no deadline. The Legislature plans to reconvene in a special session in the fall to complete congressional redistricting and make any necessary adjustments to legislative districts upon the release of final Census data. Public map submissions for congressional districts also will be accepted; those details will be announced at a later time.

The House and Senate both held a series of town hall meetings in December and January to complete the legislative redistricting process. Those meetings were livestreamed when possible, and video is archived. Previous House meetings can be viewed here: https://okhouse.gov/Video/Default.aspx and Senate meetings can be viewed here: https://oksenate.gov/live-chamber.

Anyone unable to attend the meeting may email comments to the House at redistrictoklahoma2020@okhouse.gov, Senate at redistricting@oksenate.gov, or contact their state representative or state senator. All comments and public testimony will be shared with the committees..

Additional information about the redistricting process can be found here: https://okhouse.gov/Publications/Redistricting.aspx, or here: https://oksenate.gov/redistricting.