Trump Administration Exerted 'Unprecedented' Census Engagement In Bid For Political Gain

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Former President Donald Trump and his administration demonstrated “unprecedented” engagement in the census process in a brazen bid for Republican political gain, according to a newly released memo written by a frustrated Census Bureau official.

The scathing memo from September 2020 appeared to be written by Census Bureau Deputy Director Ron Jarmin and sent to two other top Bureau officials as Trump was desperately pressing to end the population count weeks early in an attempt to manipulate it in favor of him and the GOP.

The memo listed several instances of meddling by Trump and his officials that the Bureau planned to share with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, whose department oversees the Bureau. It complained about attempts to breach the privacy of census respondents, the use of estimates to fill in data, pressure to take shortcuts, and attempts to identify undocumented immigrants.

Ultimately, the Trump administration was attempting to hijack an independent system governed by statistical science to serve Trump and the Republican Party, Jarmin suggested.

“While the presidential memorandum may be a statement of the administration’s policy, the Census Bureau views the development of the methodology and processes as its responsibility as an independent statistical agency,” the memo stated.

Much of the meddling was aimed at population estimates used for reapportionment to calculate the allotment of seats in the House of Representatives. The Trump administration was particularly insistent that the Census Bureau separately tally the number of undocumented immigrants in each state, the memo noted.

Though the census is supposed to be an honest count of America’s population — a tally of the “whole number of persons in each state,” as required by the Constitution — the Trump administration aimed to exclude noncitizens from the count. That would leave an older and whiter population counted in states with large immigrant populations, which presumably would work to Republicans’ advantage during reapportionment.

Trump failed to reach his goal to eliminate counting undocumented immigrants, but he did cause major headaches for the Bureau, and likely frightened many immigrants from participating.

The damaging memo was among hundreds of documents the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s Law School obtained in a lawsuit seeking details of the Trump administration’s plans for calculating the allotment of House seats.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-ce ... b6656c2792

The full memo https://www.brennancenter.org/sites/def ... 5-1447.pdf

just more reasons to lock him up.
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.-Huxley
"We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both." ~ Louis Brandeis,

Re: Trump Administration Exerted 'Unprecedented' Census Engagement In Bid For Political Gain

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Ultimately, the Trump administration was attempting to hijack an independent system governed by statistical science to serve Trump and the Republican Party,
Well, DUHHH!!!! This has been the M.O. of the entire GQP for at least 22 years, since Jeb Bush was purging 10's of thousands of likely Dem voters from the Florida rolls to give his dimwit brother a chance at winning that state, which he "won" by less than 600+5 votes (the last five from Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas, Kennedy, and O'Connor, the last 2 who should have known better.)
"Even if the bee could explain to the fly why pollen is better than shit, the fly could never understand."

Re: Trump Administration Exerted 'Unprecedented' Census Engagement In Bid For Political Gain

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If we decompose as a nation because of laziness on the part of citizens, then we deserve it. Citizens have to be vigilant, the eternal price of liberty. If not, self inflicted.

I amuse myself about future borders and countries carved out the pudgy corpse of Reagan's America. My future grandson will be in the Blue Bay Area, so there's that.

CDFingers
Crazy cat peekin' through a lace bandana
like a one-eyed Cheshire, like a diamond-eyed Jack

Re: Trump Administration Exerted 'Unprecedented' Census Engagement In Bid For Political Gain

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Trump as usual was really stupid, he told followers not to complete the Census forms. And he talked about "voter fraud" which depressed Republican voting and lost them votes. Republicans could have gained an extra seat in TX and gained one in AZ if census forms were completed and mailed. New York State lost a US House seat by 89 less individuals counted in the 2020 Census. The US Census matters and voting matters.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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