The Census Bureau hasn’t responded to my questions about the latest irregularities found in the census records that require more quality checks, but a DOJ attorney told a judge they’re expected to delay the release of numbers until after Trump’s term ends.
npr.org/2021/01/04/953…
2. Finding irregularities (the bureau’s calling them “processing anomalies”) in the census records is not unusual. Trying to count every person living in the U.S. has always been a messy process, which was even more complicated in 2020 because of the pandemic.
3. What was unusual was that the Trump administration, in addition to ending counting early in October, forced the Census Bureau to cut short the time for running quality checks used to make sure no resident is counted more than once or in the wrong place.
4. The Census Bureau usually takes about 5 months after the end of counting to do quality checks on the results of each once-a-decade census. At this point, the bureau has done less than 3 months of checks — while under pressure to get numbers out before the end of Trump’s term.
5. Why has the Trump administration been so keen to get numbers out soon — the same administration that asked Congress in April to extend legal reporting deadlines to give the Census Bureau more time because of the pandemic and then abruptly stopped asking for extensions in July?
6. July was when Trump put out a memo calling for an unprecedented change to who is counted when reallocating House seats & Electoral College votes. The 14th Amendment says the “whole number of persons in each state” must be included. Trump wants to omit unauthorized immigrants.
7. Trump would need to get control of the new state population counts from the 2020 census to try to make that change, which comes with more hurdles because there was no question about immigration status on last year’s forms.

It’s not over until it’s over, folks.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Hansi Lo Wang

Hansi Lo Wang Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @hansilowang

6 Jan
While we wait for Electoral College votes to be tallied by Congress, your regular reminder that your state's share of 435 of those votes is determined by the census
npr.org/2020/12/31/950… That's because the Constitu...
2. Your state's share of 100 of those Electoral College votes is based on Senate seats (2 each to 50 states), and 3 votes go to Washington, D.C. because of the 23rd Amendment.

But what primarily determines how much of a say your state has in who is president, that's the census.
3. To be clear, how the 538 electoral votes are currently assigned to the states is based on the 2010 census.

The 2020 census affects the presidential elections of 2024 & 2028.

When thinking about the census, think in the long term because it carries 10 years of consequences.
Read 4 tweets
6 Jan
NEW: The Census Bureau's associate director for the 2020 census, Al Fontenot, confirms in this court filing that newly discovered anomalies may further delay the first census results' release past Feb. 9, which was the projected release date as of Dec. 29
beta.documentcloud.org/documents/2044… these estimates are subject...
2. This court filing confirms news I reported yesterday out of a court conference for the National Urban League-led lawsuit over census schedule changes:
npr.org/2021/01/04/953…
3. "Census Bureau officials have expressed concern that altering the sequence of steps or schedule for data processing could increase the possibility that data errors are not identified or remedied," the court filing signed by Fontenot says. It also says: Other than crafting patches...
Read 4 tweets
4 Jan
BREAKING: As of Dec. 29, the Census Bureau's expected release date for the 1st set of 2020 census results is Feb. 9 & may be pushed back further bc of newly discovered irregularities in the census records, DOJ attorney John Coghlan tells a federal judge during a court conference
2. New anomalies were recently discovered in the census records, DOJ John Coghlan said during the court conference for the Nat'l Urban League-led lawsuit over the census schedule. Coghlan emphasized all dates are tentative as the Census Bureau keeps working on fixing anomalies.
3. The 1st set of 2020 census results are the new state population counts that were due to the president by Dec. 31 and are used to reapportion House seats and Electoral College votes among the states.
Read 8 tweets
30 Dec 20
NEW: 2020 census results won’t be ready by the year-end deadline, a Census Bureau employee tells NPR. The bureau’s working toward Jan. 9 for determining when to begin last steps in producing counts for reallocating House seats and Electoral College votes
npr.org/2020/12/30/951…
2. The Census Bureau employee, who spoke to NPR on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation in the workplace, confirms that the bureau is still trying to fix irregularities uncovered in this year's census records and has set Jan. 9 as an internal check-in date.
3. "If we miss Jan. 9, it's hard to envision that we would get apportionment done before inauguration," the bureau employee says.

In other words, if the census results aren't ready until after 1/20, it would be Biden who would get control of the numbers Trump wants to alter.
Read 4 tweets
29 Dec 20
The legal deadline for the first set of 2020 census results is less than two days away — Dec. 31, according to Section 141(b) of Title 13 of the U.S. Code.

And neither the Census Bureau nor the Justice Department have any answers to these questions: 1.	When is the Census Bureau planning to deliver state popul
2. When is the Census Bureau planning to deliver state population counts from the 2020 census to Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross (who oversees the bureau and is required under Title 13 to report them to the president by Dec. 31)?
3. Is the Census Bureau planning to deliver to the commerce secretary the apportionment calculation of the number of House seats to which each state is entitled at the same time as the delivery of the state population counts from the 2020 census?
Read 7 tweets
28 Dec 20
NEW: As expected, the Supreme Court has overturned lower court rulings out of California & Maryland that had blocked Trump's census apportionment memo. The liberal justices dissent, as they did for the SCOTUS ruling in the NY-based case earlier this month:
supremecourt.gov/orders/courtor… 20-561       TRUMP, PRESIDE...
2. What this means is that the Supreme Court has further cleared the path for President Trump to try to exclude unauthorized immigrants from census numbers that the Constitution says must include the "whole number of persons in each state." But time is running out...
3. Trump can try to alter the census numbers used for reallocating congressional seats and Electoral College votes only *if* he gets control of those numbers before his term ends on Jan. 20, and right now, that is still a big if because...
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!