PSAP Verification Phase; TSAP Verification Phase; SDRP Verification Phase; Redistricting Data Program Verification Phase

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

Version 1
November 2009

I.

RELATIONSHIP INFORMATION REVIEW

If there are state Voting Districts (VTD) that have a geographic relationship with other
geographic entities, particularly incorporated place and Minor Civil Division (MCD) that
the Census Bureau must maintain, provide that information as part of the VTD/BBSP
verification review. Submit VTD to entity relationship information using the
MAF/TIGER Partnership Software (MTPS) or, this information can be supplied to the
Census Bureau in a list using similar wording and formatting as the dialog box below.
The Census Bureau will maintain the relationships described by writing specific business
rules and applying them to the MAF/TIGER Database (MTDB).
Submit relationship information using the (MTPS) in the Voting District Attributes
dialog box as shown here.

The Census Bureau maintains three types of relationships:


Completely Contains: Select this relationship if you have an incorporated place
that is completely within the VTD. See Example 1 below.



Wholly Within: Select this relationship to have a VTD that is completely within
the boundaries of an incorporated place. See Example 2 and 3 below.

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

2



Coextensive: Select this relationship if the VTD and incorporated place or
county have the same boundaries. See Example 4 and 5 below.

For any relationships that are not available for selection in the Voting District
Attributes dialog box, please describe them in the Other Relationship text box using
similar description.

Example 1: VTD Anne Arundel Precinct 06-024 completely contains Highland Beach
incorporated place.

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

3

Example 2: VTDs Reading TWP VTD 01 and Reading TWP VTD 02 are wholly
within Reading Township MCD.

Example 3: VTDs 01Lind 1 and 01Lind 2 are wholly within Lind incorporated place.

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

4

Example 4: VTD Hamilton TWP is coextensive with Hamilton MCD.

Note that the MCD boundary has moved and the VTD boundary remains in its original
location. If the VTD is defined as coextensive with the MCD, then the VTD boundary
will move to the new MCD boundary.

Example 5: VTD 01Hatton City is coextensive with the incorporated place of Hatton.

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

5

II.

ADDITIONAL SUGGESTIONS

Here are additional suggestions for reporting and providing definitive VTD relationships
to the Census Bureau.
A.

Situation A – Maintain Specific Relationships Between Individual VTDs and
other Individual, Specific Entities

(Example: “VTD 001 is coextensive with Hamilton city”; “VTD 003 completely contains
Marysville village”; etc.)
Option 1 – Using the MTPS
For these specific relationships, provide that information through the MTPS. See
instructions above.
Option 2 – (Specific Relationships) Provide a spreadsheet or Microsoft Word
document outputting the information from your own database
If local relationship information stored in a local document, (i.e., Microsoft Word
document), spreadsheet or database, and not wishing to describe them again separately in
the MTPS, provide a text file, Word document or Excel spreadsheet that describes the
relationships. Please make sure to include the following information in the file:

1



2-digit State FIPS 1 code



3-digit County FIPS code



County (or county equivalent) Name



VTD Code recognized by the Census Bureau (maximum of 6 characters)



VTD Name



Type of relationship (The Census Bureau will maintain Completely Contains,
Wholly Within, and Coextensive” relationships)



Entity with which the VTD has a relationship (incorporated place, MCD, or
American Indian Area [AIA])



Census code for the entity with which VTD has the relationship (5-digit code for
incorporated places and MCDs, and 4-digit code for AIAs)

Federal Information Processing Standards

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

6

A specific format is not required as long as all the information in the bullets above is
provided. The example below shows a basic file layout to provide:
Field Name
STATEFP
County Name
COUNTYFP
VTDST

Length
2
100
3
6

Type
String
String
String
String

VTD_Name
Relate_type

100
25

String
String

Relate_Name

100

String

Relate_Code

5

String

Description
State FIPS Code
County Name
County Code
Voting District
Code
VTD Name
Type of
relationship VTD
has with other
entity
Name of entity to
which VTD is
related*
Code of entity to
which VTD is
related*

Legal Values/Range
01 to 72
001 to 840

Completely Contains
Wholly Within
Coextensive

00001 to 89999 (for inc
place)
00001 to 98999 (for MCDs)
0001 to 9998 (for AIAs)

* Must be an incorporated place, MCD or AIA
Examples of using a Word document:


VTD 001 in Suffolk County (003) is wholly within Springfield township (55628)



VTD 005 in Darlington County (013) completely contains Smith village (25487)

Examples of using a spreadsheet:

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

7

B.

Situation B - Maintain General Relationships Between VTDs and Other
Entities

(Example: “All VTDs are coextensive with MCDs”; “All VTDs completely contain
incorporated places”; etc.)
Option 1 - Using the MTPS
Provide these relationships through the MTPS. (This may be cumbersome as to specify
the relationship for each individual VTD.)
Option 2 – (General Relationships) Provide a spreadsheet or Word document
Provide a text file, Word document or Excel spreadsheet that describes the relationships.
In some cases, a one-sentence note, provided to the respective Regional Census Center
(RCC) may be sufficient. For example, if all state VTDs are coextensive with MCDs,
send a note to the RCC indicating “that all VTDs are coextensive with MCDs.”
Additional examples of how to provide this information in a Word document or
spreadsheet are below.
If providing a word document to specify relationships, see the following examples for
wording:
“All VTDs are wholly within MCDs”
or
“All VTDs in Jefferson County completely contain places”

If providing a spreadsheet to specify relationships, see the following spreadsheet
example:

County

Type of
Relationship

Entity with which VTD has
Relationship

All
Counties

Wholly within

MCDs

or
County
Jefferson

Type of
Relationship
completely
contains

Entity with which VTD has
Relationship
places

VTD/BBSP Relationship Information Review

8