Census 2020

[Aerides]

I wonder what the cross-section is between those who are all "but why is there a census why do they need to know?" and also who are all "no taxation without representation!"

and the "but why tho" question can easily be answered on the census site, or any number of places.

 

[braumeister]

Interesting look at the states that will lose or gain representatives in Congress after this census:

10 states set to lose congressional districts after 2020 census

Ten states set to lose a representative and seven to gain one or more. That's a pretty significant shakeup to our legislature.

 

[scrabbler1]

Interesting look at the states that will lose or gain representatives in Congress after this census:

10 states set to lose congressional districts after 2020 census

Ten states set to lose a representative and seven to gain one or more. That's a pretty significant shakeup to our legislature.

I'd say the estimated changes are pretty small, as they were in 2000 and 2010. Only one state, Texas, gained (or lost) as many as 3 seats in 2000 or 2010 (+4 in 2010). If you look back to 1990, California gained 7, Florida gained 4, and Texas gained 3 seats, while New York lost 3 seats. In 1980, Florida, New York, and Texas were all at least +/-3. Taken another way, the 2000 and 2010 census had 24 seats moved from one group of states to another. The 1980 census had 34 seats move and the 1990 census had 38 seats move. From what I am seeing, the total seats moving will be well under 20 this time.

I have seen various estimates and while they are pretty consistent, they don't all agree with each other as far as exact gains or losses. California failed to gain any seats in 2010 after gaining seats in every census since 1870, when they went from 2 to 3. Florida will take sole possession of third place (they were tied with NY) behind California and Texas.

 

[Taxman59]

I am a family historian (genealogist), and I know that my family has been in the US for 189 years. 1 emigrated from France. The rest were here from before the Revolutionary War. Thus, I am at least 7/8ths American and 1/8th french (actually, French, Belgian and German mix). I answered American. My wife is also from the US since before the Civil War (they were farmers who rarely were counted in the local towns, so I don't know when they actually emigrated here). I answered American for her and my son.

 

[SecondCor521]

Posting a question on this thread hoping someone will know. I tried calling the number on the census form to ask them and couldn't manage to get a human so I gave up and hung up.

Prompted by a combination of a TV advertisement, boredom, and civic duty, I logged on to the census website to fill it out. I had not received my letter with my code, so I chose the option to compete the census without it.

Since then, I've received my letter with my code in the mail. I don't want to fill the census out twice and be double counted, but I also would like to stop getting the mail about it as I feel like I am being pestered and there is an implied accusation that I'm derelict in my civic duty.

At the moment I'm deciding to toss the letters with codes in the trash, and explaining the situation if census workers do happen to show up, and not worrying about it. If anyone has any better advice what to do, I'd be interested in hearing it, especially if there's some option to say on the website "Here's my code but I already gave you my answers earlier"

 

[USGrant1962]

When I did it online it said something like you may get more letters, ignore them.

 

[jollystomper]

Posting a question on this thread hoping someone will know. I tried calling the number on the census form to ask them and couldn't manage to get a human so I gave up and hung up.

Prompted by a combination of a TV advertisement, boredom, and civic duty, I logged on to the census website to fill it out. I had not received my letter with my code, so I chose the option to compete the census without it.

Since then, I've received my letter with my code in the mail. I don't want to fill the census out twice and be double counted, but I also would like to stop getting the mail about it as I feel like I am being pestered and there is an implied accusation that I'm derelict in my civic duty.

At the moment I'm deciding to toss the letters with codes in the trash, and explaining the situation if census workers do happen to show up, and not worrying about it. If anyone has any better advice what to do, I'd be interested in hearing it, especially if there's some option to say on the website "Here's my code but I already gave you my answers earlier"

When I did it online it said something like you may get more letters, ignore them.

+1


I received a letter, filled it out, recall seeing some that if you get more letters ignore them. Received a 2nd letter a few days ago, and am ignoring it.

 

[braumeister]

When I did it online it said something like you may get more letters, ignore them.

Yes, when I did it online the confirmation read:

If you receive other mail from the Census Bureau about the 2020 Census in the next few days, please disregard it. That mail may have been sent out before today.

 

[Sunset]

Posting a question on this thread hoping someone will know. I tried calling the number on the census form to ask them and couldn't manage to get a human so I gave up and hung up.

Prompted by a combination of a TV advertisement, boredom, and civic duty, I logged on to the census website to fill it out. I had not received my letter with my code, so I chose the option to compete the census without it.

Since then, I've received my letter with my code in the mail. I don't want to fill the census out twice and be double counted, but I also would like to stop getting the mail about it as I feel like I am being pestered and there is an implied accusation that I'm derelict in my civic duty.

At the moment I'm deciding to toss the letters with codes in the trash, and explaining the situation if census workers do happen to show up, and not worrying about it. If anyone has any better advice what to do, I'd be interested in hearing it, especially if there's some option to say on the website "Here's my code but I already gave you my answers earlier"

Did you keep a screenshot proof that you did it ?

Otherwise how will you defend yourself when on trial with the other anti-census protesters

 

[SecondCor521]

Sure. But I filled out the census without using the code at all. I wonder if they'll figure it out (I used my address, after all) or if I'll get census letters for the next 10 years (unlikely, but who knows when they'll give up).

 

[SecondCor521]

Did you keep a screenshot proof that you did it ?

Otherwise how will you defend yourself when on trial with the other anti-census protesters

Heh. It's my backpocket move to avoid the next draft. I also saved the letter with my name on it.

 

[pb4uski]

The census is required to talley all residents. A citizenship question was not allowed because it might chill responses.

That is one thing that has always been a bit odd for me. One big use of the census is to apportion congressional districts. Within those congressional districts decided by the census, only citizens can vote in federal elections. So why do we use residents rather than citizens to apportion congressional districts?

 

[USGrant1962]

That is one thing that has always been a bit odd for me. One big use of the census is to apportion congressional districts. Within those congressional districts decided by the census, only citizens can vote in federal elections. So why do we use residents rather than citizens to apportion congressional districts?

About 7% of the U.S. population is non-citizens. So one could argue that 7% of 435 Members of Congress, or about 30 full-time Member equivalents (FMEs) represent citizens of foreign countries.

 

[braumeister]

That is one thing that has always been a bit odd for me. One big use of the census is to apportion congressional districts. Within those congressional districts decided by the census, only citizens can vote in federal elections. So why do we use residents rather than citizens to apportion congressional districts?

Those congresscritters represent all the people in their districts, not just voting age citizens.

 

[SecondCor521]

That is one thing that has always been a bit odd for me. One big use of the census is to apportion congressional districts. Within those congressional districts decided by the census, only citizens can vote in federal elections. So why do we use residents rather than citizens to apportion congressional districts?

@braumeister is correct. It's because the Constitution requires representation to be proportional to everyone living there, not just citizens. Back when it was written, they were accounting for Indians and slaves and mainly seemed to be thinking about those two situations. It was later amended around the time of the Civil War.

 

[scrabbler1]

Those congresscritters represent all the people in their districts, not just voting age citizens.

Don't forget about children under 18 and incarcerated prisoners. With prisoners, we have had some litigation in New York State about where they are considered to be "living" when counted for the census. Is it where the prison is or where they were living prior to being imprisoned. We have thousands of upstate prisoners who were living in NYC before they got sent away, and there have been battles over where they get counted because that can swing representation in the state legislature.

 

[Sue J]

We completed our census the other day. It was easy and quick although I got stuck on the one about my heritage. I'm from HERE, the USA, but Mom's family was from Rumania/Hungary depending on who was answering the question. Dad's family was from Pennsylvania but originally from Lithuania (or was it Latvia?) I answered a mix of all that.

Besides this online census our household is also in the National Crime Victimization Survey. We got a letter about this last year and had an in person interview last summer. Our interviews were fairly quick because we haven't had any crimes.

Last month I had a follow up phone interview that included reporting some interaction with police that I had to report. I witnessed a car accident and I called the police to report it, stayed at the scene and spoke to the officer. Also had an officer show up at our house to ask a question about another matter. We will be getting phone interviews every six months for a while.

Didn't volunteer for this, can't opt out. https://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=dcdetail&iid=245

 

[Brat]

I completed our Census questions online, short form.

The reason for the ethnicity questions is so that employment data can be compared to census data. Ethnicity has been asked in the census many times.

 

[CardsFan]

Don't forget about children under 18 and incarcerated prisoners. With prisoners, we have had some litigation in New York State about where they are considered to be "living" when counted for the census. Is it where the prison is or where they were living prior to being imprisoned. We have thousands of upstate prisoners who were living in NYC before they got sent away, and there have been battles over where they get counted because that can swing representation in the state legislature.

That is an interesting situation. Never thought of it, but it does present a dilemma. What is the current directive? A small town with a big prison could definitely change local districts.

 

[Birdie Num Nums]

@braumeister is correct. It's because the Constitution requires representation to be proportional to everyone living there, not just citizens. Back when it was written, they were accounting for Indians and slaves and mainly seemed to be thinking about those two situations. It was later amended around the time of the Civil War.

Not only slaves and Native Americans, but women couldn't vote then either (not until 100 years ago).

 

[rk911]

I don't recall 'legal' as one of the questions.

it should've been.

 

[Gumby]

Thank you all for an interesting discussion.