Census Bureau Director’s Blog Post: “Anomalies” in Data are Not as Scary as they Sound

Census Bureau Director’s Blog Post: “Anomalies” in Data are Not as Scary as they Sound

By EditorMar 09, 2021
Michael Thieme, Assistant Director for Decennial Census Programs discusses the back-office processing of census data "anomalies" and what that really means. The article, by Thieme's admission, is meant to address the confusion surrounding the term and explain that anomalies are "a signal that the quality checks on the census are working." He gives a detailed and informative look at just what anomalies really are and how the Census Bureau addresses them, including the various categories of anomalies. Thieme also assures readers that "we have not found any anomalies that are impossible to fix." Read the blog entry here.
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PlanScore Announces Online Redistricting App for Measuring Partisan Bias

PlanScore Announces Online Redistricting App for Measuring Partisan Bias

By EditorMar 07, 2021
As the push for more transparency and less partisanship in redistricting intensifies, PlanScore aims to be "a trusted, non-partisan resource for the redistricting efforts to come in the 2020 cycle." The nonprofit organization formed by top legal, academic, and technical experts in the field, will do this by offering an online diagnostic tool for redistricting maps. The Online App The online service will assist legislative staff and the general public by allowing any geographic file uploaded by site visitors to be checked for its partisan, demographic, racial, and geometric features. The analysis gives plan-wide scores for several statistical measures that…
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Listen: Census Bureau Official and NCSL Director Discuss Redistricting Data Quality and Delays

Listen: Census Bureau Official and NCSL Director Discuss Redistricting Data Quality and Delays

By EditorMar 07, 2021
In this "Our American States" podcast hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) James Whitehorne, chief of the Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office at U.S. Census Bureau, and Wendy Underhill, who oversees the Elections and Redistricting Program at NCSL discuss how the pandemic affected the bureau’s ability to collect data, and how states are responding to the six-month delay for redistricting data. Podcast https://redistrictingonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/OAS_Episode_124.mp3 For more podcasts visit the Our American States Podcast Page at NCSL.org
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The Census Bureau Sets a Target Date for Long-awaited Redistricting Data Delivery to the States

The Census Bureau Sets a Target Date for Long-awaited Redistricting Data Delivery to the States

By EditorFeb 12, 2021
The U.S. Census Bureau announced today the target date for delivering redistricting data to the states; the final component needed to redraw congressional and legislative lines. The relevant excerpts from the bureau's official blog are below. The press release is here. James Whitehorne, Chief of the Redistricting and Voting Rights Data Office, U.S. Census Bureau: If this were a typical decade, we would be on the verge of delivering the first round of redistricting data from the 2020 Census. Our original plan was to deliver the data in state groupings starting Feb. 18, 2021 and finishing by March 31, 2021.  …
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Special Citizens Voting-Age Population Tabulation Canceled by Census Bureau

Special Citizens Voting-Age Population Tabulation Canceled by Census Bureau

By EditorFeb 10, 2021
While the big news from the Census Bureau regarding the delayed apportionment and redistricting data has dominated the headlines as of late, the bureau also announced that it would be discontinuing its efforts to create a post-2020 “special tabulation” of the citizen voting-age population (CVAP). This special tab would have been a detailed estimate of the citizen voting-age population nationwide. Here is what you need to know about this development. A CVAP Special Tab is already Produced Annually by the Bureau. The special tab that was discontinued by the bureau recently is not the annual CVAP tab that it has…
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Census Bureau Announces Revised Data Release Schedule But Stops Short on Firm Date for Redistricting Data

Census Bureau Announces Revised Data Release Schedule But Stops Short on Firm Date for Redistricting Data

By EditorJan 28, 2021
The target date for apportionment data is April 30 2021. Bureau officials say a date for the release of redistricting data for the states is forthcoming, but they are certain that date will not be before July 30. A Census Bureau official made these detailed remarks on Wed, Jan. 27 to a group of legislators and staff on a conference/video call organized by the National Conference of State Legislatures. In the past, processing and preparation of apportionment and redistricting data was accomplished in a parallel process. This decade, the Bureau made the decision to focus entirely on producing the apportionment…
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Apportionment Numbers Delayed Until March

Apportionment Numbers Delayed Until March

By EditorJan 12, 2021
"Uncertainty over the timing of congressional apportionment increased Monday, as government lawyers told a federal judge the Census Bureau's new internal target date for finalizing state population counts is March 6." (Wash. Post) The remarks were made in a case management hearing for a lawsuit against the administration in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Read the Post article here.
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(Privacy) Invariants Set for 2020 Census Data Products

(Privacy) Invariants Set for 2020 Census Data Products

By EditorNov 28, 2020
The U.S. Census Bureau has determined the specific files within the redistricting data release that will not be altered for privacy purposes. Or in other words, which files will have 100% true totals. They are Total state population, total housing units by census block, and group facilities by census block. For more on the Bureau's disclosure avoidance (differential privacy) program, click here. Read the entire announcement below for additional details. Invariants Set for 2020 Census Data ProductsOn November 24th, the Census Bureau’s Data Stewardship Executive Policy Committee (DSEP) finalized the list of “invariants” for the first set of 2020 Census…
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Census Bureau Director Says “Processing Anomalies” will Delay Census Data Release Schedule

Census Bureau Director Says “Processing Anomalies” will Delay Census Data Release Schedule

By EditorNov 20, 2020
On November 19th the Director of the U.S. Census Bureau released a short statement acknowledging "certain processing anomalies" in the decennial census data collected earlier this year. While the director did point out that "processing anomalies" have been encountered in previous censuses, no further detail was given to put the current anomalies in context. According to the New York Times, the new deadline for delivering congressional apportionment data to the president is on or about January 26. The statutory deadline is Dec. 31. Just what is a "processing anomaly"? An answer is difficult to come by from the Bureau, but…
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