Local door-to-door census canvassing to begin later this week
— from Ellie Probus for Washington Census Alliance —
SEATTLE—The Washington Census Alliance, a coalition of more than 90 Black and Brown-led community organizations across Washington state, condemned the newly announced Census Bureau decision to cut door-to-door census outreach and self-response short by one month (now ending on Sept. 30 instead of Oct 31). Organizations cite the high risk that the rushed timeline will exacerbate the undercount of people of color, immigrants and rural communities that have not yet completed the census online, by phone or by mail. The people who are most at risk of undercount are likely to face the brunt effects of reduced federal funding and representation in Congress relative to their population, raising alarm bells about the political motivations of this change.
This comes on the heels of an announcement Monday that, for the first time ever, the Census Bureau will start to send emails to households in low responding areas, and may also send text messages. Recent data released from the Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey show that the Census Bureau is significantly more likely to have email addresses of those who are White, over 35 and college educated. These emails will likely serve to further compound inequities in census coverage.
The State benfits by a higher census count in terms of getting federal dollars and sets in the House. So WA State should want to get the count up as high as possible-or so you’d think…
The pandemic deep-sixed the Census effort–which includes door-to-door follow-up–and, rather than extend the census collection period, the geniuses in the Trump administration have decided to REDUCE the time for gathering an deliver the Census data, such as it is, to Donald Trump in 2020 rather than to the person elected this November, as it should be. So Trump can fiddle with the data, which he has tried endlessly to torpedo for years, and effectively assign additional seats in Congress to his lackeys.