It’s About Counting
While all of the other issues fill the news, from Stormy Daniels to Russian expulsions; Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has quietly made a decision to help maintain Republican power. It consists of a simple question on the 2020 Census: are you and members of your household US citizens?
It seems like an obvious question to ask on the census. The Department of Justice requested that the Commerce Department (who actually conducts the census) add the question in order to gain information, supposedly to enforce the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing minority voting rights. But the inclusion of this question is likely to have an insidious impact on the census, changing the actual count.
The Constitutional goal of the census (Article 1, Section 2, Part 3) is to get a count of the number of people in a state, for the purpose of dividing Congressional representation. The count is NOT a count of voters or citizens, and in fact, the original Constitution contained the famous 3/5’s clause (3/5’s of all other people – referring to slaves) as part of the count. Clearly slaves weren’t considered citizens or voting for representatives, but they were counted (at least in fraction) for the purpose of Representation.
So the census is supposed to count everyone, including those living in the United States illegally. When the census questionnaire is passed out (or when census takers go door-to-door) households are required to answer it, but are assured that the results will be confidential. So why would a simple question about citizenship raise such concerns?
Citizenship status in the United States is a major question of our time. Heads of households, responsible for answering the census questionnaire, might have in their homes folks who have overstayed their visas and are in the US illegally, or might have DACA eligible folks, or might have perfectly legal Americans in their home who are worried about the actions of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) rounding up “illegals.” By answering the question on the census, they will feel that they are providing information that could target them for “enforcement.”
So they dodge the census, and avoid being counted (this has already been shown in “test census” questionnaires.) This reduces the number counted in that state, and could change the representation to the US House of Representatives.
The Republican Party has intentionally pursued a policy of suppressing Democratic voting since 2008. It has been an extremely effective plan, including demanding photo identification to vote, “purging” voting roles of voters who fail to vote in every election, making voting more difficult in heavily Democratic voting districts, and gerrymandering Districts to maximize Republican representation. While each of these actions are legal, they have had the net effect of “rigging the game” for Republicans.
Ohio and Pennsylvania are good examples of this. Donald Trump got 54% of the popular vote to Hillary Clinton’s 44% in 2016, a clear Republican victory. However, in Ohio State House of Representative, Republicans won 66% of the seats, far exceeding even the popular Trump campaign. In Pennsylvania, Trump eked out a victory 48.1% to 47.5%, but 67% of the State House seats went to Republicans.
Ohio and Pennsylvania are in the process of disentangling the gerrymandered Districts. Pennsylvania’s courts are forcing the issue there, while Ohio is working through the legislative process to make Districts more representative of the views of their citizens. But the national Republican Party is continuing to follow “the plan” by putting a question on the census which by design will reduce the number of minority Americans who will be counted. In other words, reduce the “population” of likely Democratic areas, thus increasing the relative power of Republican districts.
In the final analysis, the Republican strategy is short sighted. While these tactics may maintain their power for a little longer, in the end, America is becoming a more “minority” nation. If Republicans don’t recognize that change, they ultimately will find themselves with the Federalists and Whigs, relegated to the historic trivia bin.
But in the meantime, every resident should be counted. The census should not be a place for partisan targeting, it should be the one place where we can find out accurately what is happening in America. It’s what the founding fathers, with all of their flaws, wanted, and it’s what America needs today. Secretary Ross should drop the question.
