In Major Move, Census Bureau Offers Up Citizenship Data For Redistricting

[DonViejo]

By Tierney Sneed
December 28, 2018 12:37 pm

In what could be a major change for voting rights and the distribution of political power between urban and rural areas, the Census Bureau signaled Friday is it willing to work with state and local officials charged with drawing voting districts if they want citizenship data for the redistricting process.

The move to inject citizenship into redistricting has been feared since the Trump administration decided to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. The addition of the citizenship to the census remains embroiled in litigation.

The indication came in the form of a federal registry notice with the Office of Budget and Management outlining the next steps the Census Bureau intends to take as it prepares for the decennial survey.



“The Census Bureau intends to work with stakeholders, specifically ‘the officers or public bodies having initial responsibility for the legislative apportionment of each state,’’ to solicit feedback on the content of the prototype redistricting data file,” the notice said. “If those stakeholders indicate a need for tabulations of citizenship data on the 2020 Census Public Law 94–171 Redistricting Data File, the Census Bureau will make a design change to include citizenship as part of that data.”

The design change would be published in the federal registry in the summer of 2019, the notice said.

The Trump administration, in deciding to include a citizenship question in the 2020 survey, claimed the question was requested by the Justice Department for Voting Rights Act enforcement. That claim that has been contradicted by internal records since released in lawsuits challenging the move.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/in-major-move-census-bureau-offers-up-citizenship-data-for-redistricting

[hedda_foil]

1. Sickening. Can all the damage these freaks and bigots do ever be undone?

[rogerashton]

2. Funny -- the constitution doesn't say that

citizens will be enumerated -- it says "persons."

[Hermit-The-Prog]

3. Republicans hate democracy; they want only to rule