Census, like Post Office, politicized in election year

Orlando, Fla. (AP) — The postal service isn’t the only staid federal agency to be drawn into a political battle in 2020.

Unlike the department charged with delivering mail, however, the U.S. Census Bureau has been here before. It has found itself targeted by politicians repeatedly since it conducted its first nationwide head count in 1790.

The reason is obvious: The census determines not only how much federal money each state gets but also how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes.

“The census was political from the very beginning and remains so,” former Census Bureau director Kenneth Prewitt wrote in an essay almost two decades ago. “Although the science of measurement is used to complete the task as accurately as possible, the central purpose of the census remains: to shift power from one set of interests to another.”

And yet some fear that this year — during a time of historic partisan and cultural divides — the scientific task of measuring the country’s population is more at risk than ever of being overtaken by politics.

Throughout this year’s census, lawmakers, civil rights groups, states and cities have been engaged in a battle with President Donald Trump’s administration as it unsuccessfully tried to add a citizenship question; filled three top positions with political appointees who have limited experience; and issued a directive to exclude residents living illegally in the country when drawing congressional districts.

“What this administration has done is unprecedented in breadth and scope,” said Thomas Saenz, who heads the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Every decision made about the conduct of the census has been politically infected.”

Political interference has real consequences, said Terri Ann Lowenthal, a former congressional staffer who specializes in census issues.

“Any time political leaders of whatever stripe question data ... try to direct how data are collected, I think it undermines confidence in the agencies and the process,” Lowenthal said. “People are less likely to participate and the quality of the data collected diminishes over time.”

MALDEF and other civil rights organizations have gone to court to challenge Trump’s efforts. They claim the Republican administration wants to exclude people in the country illegally when congressional districts are drawn in order to benefit Republicans and non-Hispanic whites. Civil rights groups, states and cities are also challenging the Census Bureau’s decision to complete the census a month early, which they fear will leave minority communities undercounted.

Census officials asked for an extension of an end-of-the-year deadline to turn in numbers used for drawing congressional districts, a request that passed the Democrat-controlled House. But then — when it appeared unlikely the measure would go anywhere in the Republican-controlled Senate — the bureau announced it would try to meet the original deadline. To do so, however, officials noted that they would have to finish up the census by the end of September instead of the end of October.