The U.S. Census Bureau admitted in 2022 that the results from the 2020 Census were flawed in 14 states, meaning the political infrastructure determined by the census — the Electoral College, congressional districts, and congressional seat apportionment — are built on inaccurate information. We are stuck using these faulty census results until the 2030 Census because, even if we had another census now, U.S. Code mandates that mid-decade census results “Shall not be used for apportionment of representatives in Congress … nor shall such information be used in prescribing congressional districts.”
Now Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., is pressing the Census Bureau to share information that will make it possible to review the accuracy of the 2020 Census and to assure an accurate count in 2030. Banks sent a letter Monday to Department of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, urging an investigation into the errors.
In 2020, the census undercounted population in five mostly Republican states, Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas, and one Democrat state, Illinois.
And the census overcounted in six Democrat states, Delaware, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island, and in two Republican states, Utah and Ohio.
“In 2020, the Census Bureau made widespread errors,” Banks’ letter reads. “These errors happened for various reasons — but in part because the Census Bureau published census data using a new methodology that intentionally miscounted the population and masked demographic data. The methodology, differential privacy, injects noise into individual voting districts.”