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 The second of these additional options, the enumeration district plan, offered States the option of proposing enumeration district (ED) boundaries for the 1980 EDs delineated outside of block-numbered areas. Using the guidelines of the Redistricting ED (R-ED) Program, States participating in this option had the opportunity to propose boundaries for EDs that also would serve as boundaries of census tabulation areas. Participating States specified features to be held as ED boundaries, and the Census Bureau honored these requests to the extent possible within the technical guidelines of the program. Officials in seven States submitted ED plans for selected counties in their States.

Because the Census Bureau offered several different ways for a State to receive data and to prepare for the use of these data, it was not uncommon for a State to choose a combination of options for participation in the 1980 Election Precinct Program. Twenty-two States took advantage of a combination of options for election precinct data. Six States, Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Vermont, and Wyoming, chose not to take part in any aspect of the Election Precinct Program.

The availability of block-level data was critical to States in their redistricting efforts. Partly as a response to the complaint that the tabulation units were too large for many areas in 1970, the Census Bureau expanded the coverage of the Block Statistics Program. For 1980, in addition to the regular census program of having the tabulation and publication of data for all blocks within a 1980 urbanized area (see for more information on the relationship of urbanized areas to blocks), the Census Bureau extended the program to any incorporated place that had (1) a population of 10,000 or more as of the 1980 census, (2) a subsequent official Census Bureau estimate through 1976, or (3) a special census through 1977.

In addition, the Census Bureau offered the Contract Block Statistics Program, as it had in the past. This gave State and local governments the opportunity to have the Census Bureau collect and publish data—at cost—by block for areas not in the Census Bureau’s regular block program. 14-8Voting Districts