Local officials could have more time to complete census counts, federal judge rules

Only five days before census counts were set to cease, a federal judge in California barred the Trump administration from cutting efforts a month short.

U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued a preliminary injunction Thursday requiring the Census Bureau to extend counting efforts through Oct. 31, NPR reported. That October date was the original date the census was scheduled to end, but the Trump administration in July cut short in-person counts by a month, meaning all counts — including in-person followups with households that have not yet responded as well as self-responses by mail, phone or online — would have ended Sept. 30.

The controversial decision came in the wake of in-person counts being postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Data from the census determines congressional seats as well as how federal dollars are spent. Leaders quickly honed in on a final push focused on areas with low self-response rates, often with residents who are disproportionately poor, young or people of color.

“The next decade, if Westmoreland County residents don’t (respond to) the census, we are going to have less federal spending, policy and stuff like that,” said Chad Amond, president and CEO of the Westmoreland County Chamber of Commerce. “If the commonwealth doesn’t sign in for the census, we’re going to lose one or two members of Congress.”

Efforts to ensure those counts included everyone across the state can now be relaxed.

“Many of our nonprofits had been rushing to do as much outreach as possible when they heard that the timeline had been moved up, so I think it will be a breath of fresh air for our nonprofits to know they might have a little more time to do their outreach efforts,” said Phil Koch, member of the Westmoreland Complete Count Committee and executive director of the Community Foundation of Westmoreland County.

Koch noted that it should be fairly easy for organizations to extend their outreach efforts for another month, given that was the original date for ending counting efforts. So far, about 72% of people in Westmoreland County have self-responded to the census, meaning they filled out the survey via phone, mail or online.

Koch added, “Having more time to ensure that all people in our county are counted will be of help and will help ensure a more accurate count. Any steps that we can take that ensures an accurate count is the right step to take, including sending it back to the original extension date.”

In Allegheny County, response rates hover at a little more than 71%, a census response rate map shows. When the date was originally changed to Sept. 30, Gregg Behr, co-chair of the Allegheny County Complete Count Committee and executive director of the Grable Foundation, said officials would accelerate plans.

“We’re going to keep going and going until we’re told to stop,” Behr said. “The really great news is that in terms of the self-response rates for Allegheny County, we’ve exceeded the 2010 level. We’re certainly not stopping because we’ve reached this mark, but it feels good given all the asteroids thrown at us since the very beginning of this census count.”

Despite those efforts, Koh found that the shortened schedule would likely produce inaccurate numbers, harming the constitutional purpose of the count, NPR reported.

While the ruling will give organizations more time to complete counts, the Justice Department has already filed a notice they will be appealing the order.

In July, Democrats were fearful the move to change dates was a push for political gain by President Trump and Senate Republicans by pressuring the Census Bureau to wrap up the once-a-decade survey prior to having a complete count.

At the time, Behr responded by saying the census should not be “a political thing. This is a thing that goes to the heart of our democracy and how we structure our democracy and representation by and for the people.”