Washington’s once-in-a-decade process of redrawing congressional and legislative district boundaries gets underway Wednesday, with the first official meeting of the state Redistricting Commission.

The four appointed commissioners – one each named by the leader of a legislative caucus – will have about 10 months to rearrange the state’s 10 congressional districts and 49 legislative districts to reflect changes in population that will show up in the 2020 Census. They’ll have a virtual meeting at 4 p.m., which will be broadcast on TVW, the state’s public access channel.

The final census numbers aren’t available yet, but based on preliminary estimates, Washington didn’t grow enough to get an additional congressional seat, as it did in 2010, 1990 and 1980. But the population growth in Western Washington has outpaced Eastern Washington.

Although the districts will be based on the number of residents reported by the census, not voters, the results of last November’s election hint at significant differences among the current congressional districts. In the 7th Congressional District, which covers parts of King and Snohomish counties, 466,462 voters cast ballots in a relatively uncontested race that returned Democrat Pramila Jayapal to the House. In Central Washington’s 4th Congressional District, which had a similarly noncompetitive race featuring incumbent Republican Dan Newhouse, 305,263 voters cast ballots.

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