Monthly Redistricting Update: September

By EditorOct 01, 2020

Its October 1st and here is what happened on the redistricting front in September. The big news has been the litigation surrounding the census's operations and how the data will be presented. Open questions abound. Will the apportionment numbers include or exclude undocumented noncitizens? When will counting operations end? Will the data be accurate? and even if it is accurate, will disclosure avoidance methods compromise accuracy for redistricting? Read the articles below if you missed any of this. News Federal Judge Orders Census Count to Continue Through Oct 31 A Look at the New Redistricting Process in New York Washington…

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Federal Judge Orders Census Count to Continue Through Oct 31

By EditorSep 25, 2020

A U.S. District Judge in the Northern District of California has issued a preliminary injunction that enjoins the U.S. Census Bureau from ending its counting operations on September 30. The order explains that the coalition of plaintiffs - headed by the National Urban League - are likely to succeed in the lawsuit and that shortening the timeframes for data collection and processing by half, necessitate the preliminary injunction. The administration is expected to appeal. Read the order here. While the Census Bureau had originally requested Congress to extend the statutory deadlines for apportionment data delivery to the President and redistricting…

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Restraining Order Halting Census Wind-down Operation is Extended by Judge

By EditorSep 21, 2020

On Thursday, a federal district court judge extended a temporary restraining order barring the Census Bureau from wrapping up its counting operations in order to deliver census results on its statutory time schedule. The plaintiffs in the case are asking the court to compel the Bureau to take more time to complete the nationwide count since it was delayed earlier this Spring due to Covid-19. Listen below to NPR's quick update on how and why this happened. NPR Morning Edition - Court Order Keeps Census In Limbo As Counting End Date Looms 9-17-20 In March, the Bureau had requested an…

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A Look at the New Redistricting Process in New York

By Michelle DavisSep 15, 2020

2021 will be the first time New York conducts redistricting under a new regime. In 2014, as part of a political compromise between the legislature and governor, a constitutional amendment was proposed and eventually approved by voters that establish a redistricting advisory commission, new redistricting criteria, and other rules to increase fairness and participation in the redistricting process. Here is a summary of the process. Redistricting Commission: The amendment creates a 10-member commission, eight of whom are chosen by legislative leaders (speaker, senate president and the minority leaders in each house). Four members are chosen from the majority party and…

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Video: New York Legislators Hold Public Hearing on Redistricting

By Michelle DavisSep 14, 2020

Hoping to grapple with an untenable confluence of logistical realities, the Legislative Task Force on Demographic Research and Reapportionment held this hearing in July to deal with possible delayed census results, early 2022 primaries, and new redistricting rules. The full video of that July 15 virtual public hearing is below. The legislature will be grappling with an entirely new process for redistricting in accordance with a 2014 constitutional amendment that made significant changes to the state's redistricting process, including the creation of a redistricting commission. Several reform, advocacy and public interest groups testified at the hearing including the League of…

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Washington State Data Office: Privacy Protected Census Data it Sampled is “Unfit” to Use

By Michelle DavisSep 14, 2020

"The majority of the data output from the DAS [disclosure avoidance system] appears to be unfit for most uses." Is how a letter to the Census Bureau's Disclosure Avoidance Team starts off. The letter, from the Washington State Office of Financial Management, which runs the state data center, sums up the results of the state's usability test of census data treated with a disclosure avoidance technique called "differential privacy," which introduces "statistical noise" into the dataset in order to maintain the privacy of individual data. Sampling the Technique: If you are unfamiliar with the technique you can read more about…

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Watch: House Committee Holds Hearing on Census Timeline

By EditorSep 13, 2020

On September 10, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held a hearing on the status of the Census Bureau's operations in light of Covid-19 delays and other challenges. The hearing was prompted by suspension of count operations in April due to Covid-19, a failed request for Congress to extend critical statutory deadlines for delivery of census data, and an abrupt pivot by the bureau to end its count operations early in an effort to meet the original deadlines for delivery of apportionment and redistricting data. https://youtu.be/c4OF6jQFfgc Witnesses include: J. Christopher Mihm, Managing Director, Strategic Issues Team, Government Accountability Office…

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Listen: 3 Minute Summary of Court Ruling on Trump Administrations Apportionment Count Method

By EditorSep 12, 2020

NPR's "All Things Considered" explains the recent New York federal district court ruling involving the apportionment count. It is one of several lawsuits seeking to enjoin the president from requiring the Census Bureau to report an estimate of the number of illegal immigrants in each state for the purpose of using that info to apportion House seats in the U.S. Congress. A presidential memorandum seeks to adjust state total population counts used for apportionment, to exclude residents who are in the country illegally. NPR - All Things Considered. Sept. 10, 2020 (link)

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Here’s the Status of the 2020 Census. So Far . . .

By EditorSep 12, 2020

Need a quick explanation on whats going on with the census? wondering if it will be delayed, extended or or cut short? Listen to Jeffrey Wice, an adjunct professor and senior fellow at New York Law School and head of the school’s New York Census and Redistricting Institute - explain what we know up to this point. But remember, things may be changing as you read this. https://spectrumlocalnews.com/nys/central-ny/news/2020/09/09/census-count-update#

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NY Federal Court Enjoins Presidential Order to Remove Illegal Immigrants from Apportionment Count

By Michelle DavisSep 11, 2020

A federal court panel is the first to decide on whether the president's memorandum directing the U.S. Census Bureau to report the estimated number of “aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status” is unlawful. The memo's stated purpose is to subtract this estimate from the total population in each state - the number that is historically used to apportion congressional seats among the states. Read the opinion here. Officials Enjoined: The court enjoined all of the officials who were party to the lawsuit from reporting the estimate in the official apportionment report. The court did acknowledge, however, that…

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