National Archives News: 1950 Census on Track for 2022 Release, Despite Pandemic. “With less than a year to go before the release of the 1950 census, National Archives staff are working to ensure researchers around the world can access the records as planned on April 1, 2022.”
NBC News: Census settlement: House seat numbers can’t be released before next week. “The numbers used for deciding how many congressional seats each state gets can’t be released before next Monday, according to an agreement that settles litigation between the U.S. Census Bureau and a coalition of local governments and civil rights groups. The agreement filed in court on Thursday also requires the statistical agency to provide regular updates to the civil rights groups and local governments on the quality of the data used for drawing congressional and legislative districts.”
Route Fifty: Census Delay Spells Election Chaos for States. “The months-long delay in tallying last year’s census is wreaking havoc on the states with elections this year and next. The stakes are high in states with fast-changing populations: In states that are becoming more diverse, Democrats are eager to wield increased statehouse clout and advance agendas such as expanding voting rights and moving away from mass incarceration. Republicans hanging on to control in swing states want to draw new legislative and congressional district lines to retain endangered suburban districts by extending them into rural areas where conservative sentiment is still strong.”
WRAL: Watchdog: Routes given to census takers were often confusing. “When asked by GAO investigators, only 21.6% of area census office managers were satisfied with the accuracy and efficiency of how cases were assigned, according to the report, a broad review of what worked and didn’t work during data collection for the release 2020 census….The report also noted that nearly 8,000 census takers who had failed their training tests were given assignments anyway, and that almost 1.2 million households were reached by census takers by telephone, a new option given to census managers.”
BBC: Census 2021 to provide snapshot of life during pandemic. “A snapshot of life in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is to be captured later when millions of people take part in the once-a-decade census. People are being asked to complete an online questionnaire about every person living at their property. For the first time it also includes voluntary questions in England and Wales for over-16s on gender identity and sexual orientation.”
The Tribune: Census Goes Online For The First Time In History. “The Department of Statistics will be conducting an exercise from April to July to establish a listing database that will allow for the digital and online census taking. #During the listing exercise, all buildings and dwellings in New Providence, Grand Bahama and the Family Islands will be listed by enumeration district. The listing will be compiled to create a comprehensive national register of households, which will be utilised during the official census exercise.”
Seattle Times: Redistricting data may be ready a month early, in old format . “States under pressure to redraw congressional and legislature districts but facing a delay in the release of the needed data may be able to get the numbers in an outdated format in August, more than a month earlier than the planned date for their official release, a U.S. Census Bureau official said Thursday. The redistricting data will be available in mid-to-late August, but they will be in an older data format that may be difficult for some states to work with since they require extra steps to be taken to make them usable, Al Fontenot, the bureau’s associate director of decennial census programs, told a Census Bureau advisory committee.”
New York Times: A New Delay for Census Numbers Could Scramble Congressional Elections. “The delivery date for the 2020 census data used in redistricting, delayed first by the coronavirus pandemic and then by the Trump administration’s interference, now is so late that it threatens to scramble the 2022 elections, including races for Congress.”
Reuters: U.S. Census Bureau director resigns ahead of schedule. “The U.S. Census Bureau’s embattled director on Monday announced he is resigning nearly a year ahead of schedule and will retire on Wednesday, the day Democratic President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated, according to a letter on the bureau’s website.”
Politico: Census Bureau says Trump’s push to exclude undocumented is dead. “Outgoing President Donald Trump’s plan to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census totals used to apportion congressional seats is officially dead. The Census Bureau announced Saturday that data on apportionment — and a related calculation of the number of undocumented immigrants Trump has specifically requested — would not be released until after President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in.”
New York Times: Census Officials Say They Can’t Meet Trump’s Deadline for Population Count. “In a blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to strip unauthorized immigrants from census totals used for reapportionment, Census Bureau officials have concluded that they cannot produce the state population totals required to reallocate seats in the House of Representatives until after President Trump leaves office in January.”
Associated Press: Census takers say they were told to enter false information. “Two census takers told The Associated Press that their supervisors pressured them to enter false information into a computer system about homes they had not visited so they could close cases during the waning days of the once-a-decade national headcount. Maria Arce said her supervisor in Massachusetts offered step-by-step instructions in how to trick the system. She said she felt guilty about lying, but she did not want to disobey her supervisors, who kept repeating that they were under pressure from a regional office in New York to close cases.”
New York Times: Two Huge Questions Loom as 2020 Census Winds Down. “The most contentious census count in memory is nearing an end with questions remaining about the accuracy of its numbers and how they will be used in congressional reapportionment.”
NBC News: Supreme Court allows Trump administration to end census count early. “The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively allowed the government to stop the census count immediately, blocking a lower court order that would have required the Trump administration to continue gathering census information in the field until the end of October.”
Phys .org: American Statistical Association releases 2020 Census Quality Indicators, urges prompt action. “The American Statistical Association Board of Directors has endorsed the recommendations of the 2020 Census Quality Indicators report, written by a task force of census experts to shed light on the quality, accuracy, and coverage of the 2020 Census counts. The task force, co-chaired by former US Chief Statistician Nancy Potok and ASA President-elect Robert Santos, was formed in early September in response to concerns about 2020 Census data quality, including the lack of transparency and measures of quality traditionally provided by the US Census Bureau.”
