# About redistricting Redistricting is the act of redrawing a voting district's boundaries. 2020 was the last major redistricting cycle. Ballotpedia tracks which voting district boundary is in effect at a given time using start dates and end dates. The start date corresponds to the date when an officeholder swears into office, and the end date is the officeholder's last day in office. A voting district boundary's start and end dates do not necessarily, and usually do not, equal the election date for that office. Ballotpedia determines which voting district will be used for which race based on several factors, including the voting boundary's start and end dates; the race year; the election date; the race's swearing in date; and whether the race is a regular or special election. As an example, California's 22nd Congressional district has voting district boundaries with the following end dates. * Pre-2020 redistricting boundary end date: 2023-01-02 * Post-2020 redistricting boundary end date: null (implying it will be used for the foreseeable future) In 2022, California's 22nd Congressional district had a special election and regular election on the same date. How did we know which boundary would be used for each race? For the 2022 *special* election, we knew that the *pre-*redistricting voting boundary was used, because * It was a special election * The election date was *before* the boundary's end date For the 2022 *regular* election, we knew that the *post-*redistricting voting boundary was used, because the race's swearing in date was *after* the pre-redistricting boundary's end date. --- # Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question. Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter: ``` GET https://developer.ballotpedia.org/geographic-apis/about-redistricting.md?ask= ``` The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language. The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation. Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.