But redrawing lines in response to public comments, advocacy groups’ pleas and commissioners’ own concerns can require cascading changes elsewhere, or could even mean blowing up entire statewide maps. And the pressure is on because commissioners face a compressed timeline.

The commissioners have been discussing rounds of regional “visualizations” — hypothetical scenarios based on their direction to the line-drawers — while trying to incorporate some of the public input they’ve been receiving along the way, and in some cases going back to the drawing board.

In the first round of visualizations, for example, two longtime Black members of Congress were put in the same district in Los Angeles. That was fixed in the second round, but had ripple effects.

There were apparently so many issues with the third set of congressional districts — where the biggest changes from existing districts are expected — that after a closed session Nov. 7, the commission removed them from its website temporarily.

“Basically what we’re saying is, ‘The map is a hot mess.’ Is that correct?” commissioner Sara Sadhwani said at the Nov. 8 meeting, referring to congressional districts in San Diego.

Nonetheless, the commission released its official preliminary maps, ahead of a Nov. 15 deadline. After that, no changes can be made for two weeks as public comment meetings start Nov. 17.

Then, there could still be significant changes between the preliminary maps and the final maps, which are due to the Secretary of State’s office by a court-ordered deadline of Dec. 27.