GOP is accused of mailing out misleading forms

WASHINGTON >> The Republican National Committee is sending documents labeled “2020 Congressional District Census” to people in California and across the country just weeks before the start of the official nationwide count of the country’s population.

Critics say the misleading mailers — in envelopes labeled “Do Not Destroy. Official Document” and including a lengthy questionnaire on blue-tinted paper similar to the type used by the real census — are designed to confuse people and possibly lower the response rate when the count begins in mid-March.

The top of the mailer states it is “commissioned by the Republican Party.” In smaller print on the second page, below a request for donations, is a notice that it is paid for by the Republican National Committee. Included in the envelope is a four-page letter from National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel asking for donations to the party and a promise to support President Donald Trump in 2020.

Unlike the official census form, the RNC survey is largely made up of political questions, such as whether the respondent supports using military force against Iran, thinks race relations in the country are getting worse and believes “political correctness” has gotten out of hand. Trump’s reelection campaign has followed up with text messages to some recipients, urging them to fill it out online.

With billions of dollars in federal funding on the line and a chance that California could lose a seat in Congress based on the census results, critics worry some residents will fill out the mock census document and ignore or throw away the real one.

Daniel Wessel, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, called the RNC mailer “intentionally deceptive” and “reprehensible.” Democrats also use surveys, but he said they do not attempt to disguise them as official government documents.

The Republican National Committee referred questions about the mailer to the Trump reelection campaign.

Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager noted that the documents are marked as coming from the Republican National Committee. She would not discuss other details, including how many mailers were sent, where they were sent and why the committee called it a “census.”

It’s not the first time the Trump administration has been accused of trying to suppress census response rates. The Supreme Court last year blocked the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the census, which experts said would have likely led to an undercount in states such as California that have large immigrant populations.

Immigrant activist groups and politicians remain concerned that even the administration’s attempt to include the citizenship question will drive down response rates. The Census Bureau has spent millions on ads in an attempt to assure people their responses won’t be shared with other federal or local agencies.

Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., said many of the people who have contacted her office said they first heard about the mailer from their confused elderly parents who were unsure if the document was the official census.