All that follows in this post is
based on segment about the 2020 census and where that has us right. Article is
here from Bloomberg via MSNBC with this
headline:
“U.S.
Census Undercounts Black, Latino, and Indigenous Americans Again”
(Bloomberg) – The latest census undercounted Black, Latino, and
Native Americans at higher rates than a decade ago, potentially depriving those
communities of financial resources and political representation, according to new data released
by the U.S. Census Bureau.
The biggest shortfall in
the 2020 census was for American Indian and Alaska Natives living on
reservations, with a 5.6% undercount, up from 4.9% in 2010.
Black or African-Americans and Hispanic or Latino Americans were undercounted by 3.3% and 5%, respectively, in 2020. That compares to a 2.1% undercount for the Black population and a 1.5% undercount for the Hispanic population in 2010.
Non-Hispanic White
Americans had an overcount of 1.6%, and Asians had an overcount of
2.6%.
All told, the 2020
census overlooked 0.24% of the overall U.S. population, a rate so low
that it isn’t statistically significant.
The census
overcounted 0.01% of the population,
or about 36,000 people, in 2010.
The review underscores the
difficulty census takers had in 2020 amid the first wave of lockdowns and
social distancing orders that accompanied the early days of the pandemic.
It could also reflect the
effects of the Trump administration’s efforts to add a citizenship question to
the survey, a quest that was eventually abandoned amid criticism that it would
reduce immigrants' survey participation.
A June 2020 Pew Research survey of 4,700 U.S. adults showed that respondents who were Black or Hispanic were less likely than White ones to have participated in the census.
Earlier surveys showed that Black and Hispanic adults were less likely to say
they planned to, as well.
Related 5-minute video in the story
Historical purpose of census: The data collected by the
census determine the number of seats each state has in the U.S. House of
Representatives – the process called apportionment. It is used to adjust
or redraw electoral districts based on where populations have increased or
decreased.
Note the word usage of “based on populations of where people live” not on where voters live or who votes where they live.
That is a critical
distinction that Donald J. Trump and many around him don’t seem to grasp and understand.
If they did, then why do they choose to violate and disregard what it means as we
see now following the 2020 census wherein many if not most, GOP-run states they
are changing voting laws and rules to tilt districts to the GOP to ensure that
that they never ever lost another election.
Along the way those GOP-run
states seem to have forgotten this historical quote from Supreme Court Chief
Justice Earl Warren who spoke in the land mark case of Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533
(1964). In that case the High Court ruled that the electoral districts of state
legislative chambers must be roughly equal in population.
Reynolds along Baker v. Carr (1962) and Wesberry v. Sanders (1964)
was part of a series of Warren Court cases that applied the principle of “one person, one vote” to all U.S. legislative bodies.
Warren’s famous quote
underscores what I mean right now following the 2020 census that Trump changed
the rules for conducting and especially in the middle of the COVID pandemic.
Warren said in Reynolds: “Legislators represent people, not trees
or acres. Legislators are elected by voters, not farms, or cities, or
economic interests.”
This precisely from Reynolds: Equal protection requires that state
legislative districts should be comprised of roughly equal populations if
possible. In the 8-to-1 decision authored by Chief Justice Warren, the
Court upheld the challenge to the Alabama system, holding that Equal Protection
Clause demanded “no less than substantially equal state legislative representation
for all citizens...”
Noting that the right to direct
representation was “a bedrock of our political system,” the Court held that
both houses of bicameral state legislatures had to be apportioned on a
population basis. States were required to have “honest and good faith” efforts to
construct districts as nearly of equal population as practicable.
My 2 Cents: Obviously in my opinion the GOP of today is solely owned and operated by and for Trump who seems to have forgotten the premise of “one person, one vote.”
Voting in a free, fair, safe, and secure election is the
bedrock foundation of our democracy, period.
Instead now this “new” GOP wants rules that say: “Only GOP votes count
– and we’ll make sure of that.”
That is what we see today
based on Trump’s false and sustained rage (his “Big Lie”) about losing in 2020
to Joe Biden – wherein he and many others we now are finding out were involved and
behind the January 6 insurrection to overturn that election – which did not happen thank goodness.
Now they are working hard
to get the GOP-run states to change the rules that Trump wants changed since his 2020 loss, and now ongoing in those GOP-run states since the 2020 census as stated above
to ensure that they never lose again.
I don’t know where this will end up but if the GOP indeed gets their way, then our very fabric will be ripped to shreds.
We must not allow that happen.
Thanks for stopping by.
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