Report Shows Census Figures in Numerous States Have Miscounting Errors and Follow a Striking Political Pattern – Opinion

It’s interesting to note that both the over- and undercounts in censuses follow blue and red tendencies.

Although tabulating citizens on behalf of National Census cannot be a scientific process for more than a few decades, there are some notable flaws in recent data. These are the U.S. Census Bureau releaseIt 2020 Post-Enumeration Survey Estimation ReportIt has produced a list of the states with notated variations to the original census survey.

These results can be quite surprising. In total, over a quarter of the states in the union —  14 in total — are shown as having significant errors There were two types of citizenry count: those with high overages and those with low numbers. It seems that the trend line between how these over/under numbers run follows a clear blue/red formula.

The strong overages were not all negative. Eight states 

• Hawaii +6.79%
• Delaware +5.45% 
• Rhode Island +5.05%
• Minnesota +3.84%
• New York +3.44%
• Utah +2.59%
• Massachusetts +2.24% 
• Ohio +1.49% 

These are the six states that have the most undercounts:

• Arkansas -5.04%
• Tennessee: -4.78%
• Mississippi: -4.11%
• Florida -3.48%
• Illinois -1.97%
• Texas -1.92%

These are some of the clear benefits. Two states — Minnesota and Rhode Island — likely each held onto a Congressional seat they would have otherwise lost. Minnesota managed to keep its total number of Congressional seats by just 26 individuals. Texas was the other side. FloridaThey likely didn’t get an extra House seat. Both were expected to gain three seats more in pre-Census estimates. However, they each received two. 

A representative of the Census Bureau stated that this accounting error is in keeping with previous census results. NPR statedIn 2010, there were no over/under errors. So, what caused this high level of error? And why was the weighting based on party affiliation?

Although no direct explanation was provided for these errors, Donald Trump and the Pandemic were cited as two common causes. He had reduced the timeframe for counting, which was initially extended to deal with the pandemic. It has been said the Trump administration’s lengthy effort to influence the census count was also a factor, but there are issues with this excuse. The primary thrust of the Trump administration’s involvement had been focusing on illegal residents concerning the apportionment of the House, as well as statewide districting maps. 

Trump officials had been working not to avoid counting illegals in the overall census, but to see they – due to not being legal citizens – They were not tabulated in regardThese representation issues. One example is the push to remove illegal residents from count when it comes to allocating representatives and total electoral votes. It would appear that this was a backfire for red states as immigrant-rich places such as Texas and Florida are undercounted.

However, Census Bureau employees resisted the effort. An internal email showed the officials were “pessimistic” about executing such a plan. One Latino rights organization also praised the Bureau’s resistance to these attempts and for protecting the integrity the operation.

The apportionment is as it stands. This is not surprising. The benefits of the overcounts favor the blue states, while the effects of the undercounting seem to be primarily to have impacted the red states. These corrected data will now be used going forward. This means that the advantages or handicaps won’t be realized until at least ten years from now.