It’s been revealed today the census taken in 2020 just so happened to overcount the net population of seven blue states and undercount the net populations in five red states.
Why is this important? Because those counts were used to establish both the number of congressional seats and electoral college votes for each state.
Via NPR:
For the 2020 census, all states were not counted equally well for population numbers used to allocate political representation and federal funding over the next decade, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Thursday.
A follow-up survey the bureau conducted to measure the national tally’s accuracy found significant net undercount rates in six states: Arkansas (5.04%), Florida (3.48%), Illinois (1.97%), Mississippi (4.11%), Tennessee (4.78%) and Texas (1.92%).
It also uncovered significant net overcount rates in eight states — Delaware (5.45%), Hawaii (6.79%), Massachusetts (2.24%), Minnesota (3.84%), New York (3.44%), Ohio (1.49%), Rhode Island (5.05%) and Utah (2.59%).
For the other 36 states, as well as Washington, D.C., the bureau did not find statistically significant net over- or undercount rates.
These revelations come after the population totals from a census beset by the coronavirus pandemic and years of interference from former President Donald Trump’s administration have already been used to divvy up seats in the House of Representatives, as well as votes in the Electoral College, for the next decade.
During a press briefing on Wednesday, bureau officials emphasized the follow-up survey’s estimates, which were delayed largely because of the pandemic, will not change each state’s share of representation in the House or the Electoral College.
Of course. Even though errors were made, the damage is already done and won’t be undone. Republican states get screwed again.
There did happen to be one red state overcounted and one blue state undercounted, but that just feels like it was done intentionally to give someone cover if there was ever an investigation.
I don’t honestly know how many Congressional seats or EC votes this affects, but it just can’t be a coincidence that blue states would have gotten more congressional seats and red states that would have gotten less.