FRANKFORT, Ky. — Kentucky will have new legislative maps in 2022, we just don’t know what they’ll look like yet.

“Everything is in a crunch right now to get this thing done,” Rep. Jerry Miller (R-Eastwood) said. 

Miller leads the committee in charge of redistricting, and he said problems with the U.S. Census caused by the pandemic led to data not coming in until September.

“In a normal decennial census or following the decennial census, the information would be received in April or early May, and you’d have the summer to go and methodically go through the process unrushed,” he said.

So for the last several weeks, Miller and other top lawmakers have been trying to draw maps for all of the state legislative seats and congressional districts, which is a complicated process.

“It’s somewhat like a Rubik’s Cube or dominoes: each one affects all the others when you make a change,” miller said.

Lawmakers also need to be in session to pass new maps, and the next regular session starts just a few days before the filing deadline for candidates.

Miller said a special session may be necessary to pass a map earlier so people know what districts they’re running for.

“If we don’t get a special session called and a bill passed before Christmas, we will almost certainly have to come in early Jan. and change the filing deadlines; bump them back four weeks or whatever,” he said.

Only Gov. Andy Beshear can call a special session, and Miller said lawmakers want to make the potential maps available to the public before that happens.

He says he’s not sure when they’re going to have everything complete and ready to go.

“Well in a perfect world, we would’ve done that already,” Miller said. “We would have done that a week or so ago, but you have to review these maps.”

And that review process could take some time.