Census delay sends redistricting ripples nationwide WASHINGTON — The Census Bureau’s late delivery of redistricting data will trigger a cascade of delays across the country, potentially complicating the mapmaking process in many states and delaying local elections. Congress may still pass a law extending the agency’s deadline to deliver apportionment figures, but that won’t help states about to bump against, or crash through, their own legal deadlines to redraw legislative and congressional maps. A handful of states, such as New Jersey and California, have mechanisms in place to handle census data coming up to four months late. Others, less so.