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You may have missed it, but a recent Census Bureau report revealed that the bureau made significant errors in the most recent census, overcounting the population of eight states and undercounting the population of six states.
As a result, the citizens in undercounted states, such as Florida, did not receive all of the congressional representation to which they are entitled, while citizens in states such as Minnesota and Rhode Island that were overcounted are overrepresented in Congress.
As everyone who filled out a census form in 2020 knows, we were meeting the requirement of Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution that mandates an “actual enumeration” of the U.S. population every 10 years. The year 2020 was the 24th census conducted in our history.
While that population data is used for many different statistical purposes, including the distribution of federal fund ---s under programs that provide money to the states based on their share of the U.S. population, its constitutional purpose is to apportion representation in the House of Representatives. That also affects presidential elections, since apportionment determines how many votes a state has in the Electoral College. Under Section 1 of Article II, the number of electors for each state is two U.S. senators plus the number of its representatives.
Generally, if a state, for example, has 10% of the total population, then it is entitled to 10% of the representatives in the House. This is not always the case, though, due to another provision in Section 2 of Article I that provides that “each state shall have at least one representative.”
This, obviously, can affect apportionment for the other states. --->READ MORE HERE
The U.S. Census Bureau admits it undercounted populations in five Republican-led states while overcounting people in six Democrat-leaning states, a disparity one congressman says cost Texas a congressional seat to which it was entitled.
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) told Just the News he is demanding answers from the population-counting agency because the disparities uncovered by the 2020 post-enumeration survey show errors in counting large enough to impact the tools of U.S. representative democracy, such as electoral votes and congressional apportionment.
"The numbers don't lie," Nehls said. "Texas was undercounted by 2%, which means we were cheated out of an additional seat in Congress. And four other Republican states were as well. As a result, these red states have less representation in Congress, fewer votes in the Electoral College, and therefore receive less federal funding.
The Census Bureau earlier this year said a post-count analysis foud the 2020 census undercounted populations in five red states — Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennesee and Texas — as well as one traditionally Democrat state, Illinois. Likewise, the agency found it overcounted populations in six blue states — Hawaii, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New York, Rhode Island and Joe Biden's home state of Delaware — as well as two GOP-led states, Ohio and Utah.
Census officials acknowledged they were disappointed by the accuracy rate of the 2020 count, which they said was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. None of the under and overcounts can be fixed for apportionment, but the survey will be sued to try to make the 2030 count more precise, they added. --->READ MORE HERE
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