Court: Census deadline extended to Oct. 31, but government appeal expected

CENSUS BUREAU

Census workers will continue to count people until the deadline, whenever that is.Add caption

A federal court has ordered the U.S. Census to extend by an extra month its self-imposed deadline that was supposed to be Sept. 30. However, the ruling by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in the Northern District of California, will most likely be appealed, leaving the final outcome up in the air for at least another few days.

The Census is being asked to extend its Sept. 30 deadline because the coronavirus and natural disasters such as the California wildfires and tropical storms hitting the Gulf states have thrown off the Census' timetable. Last Spring, the Census Bureau, the Trump administration and their community partners had agreed to extend the deadline to Oct. 31. 

With days to go, the U.S. Census and Asian American community groups are scrambling to make sure as many people as possible are included in the tally mandated by the Constitution.

The Census is being asked to extend its Sept. 30 deadline because the coronavirus and natural disasters such as the California wildfires and tropical storms hitting the Gulf states have thrown off the timetable. Last Spring, the Census Bureau, the Trump administration and their community partners had agreed to extend the deadline to Oct. 31. However, last month, the Census reverted to Sept. 30 as the end of the count.

"It is ludicrous to think we can complete 100% of the nation's data collection earlier than 10/31 and any thinking person who would believe we can deliver apportionment by 12/31 has either a mental deficiency or a political motivation," wrote Tim Olson, who oversees the enumerators who are going door-to-door to the households who have not self-reported online, phone or by mail.

The hearing Tuesday (Sept. 22) sometimes became testy as the government lawyers wanted to the judge to issue a ruling quickly so that they could file an appeal. However, Koh fired back that the government attorneys were the ones causing delays. She pointed out that the government's legal team violated two of her orders to produce documents, and even denied the existence of documents that it later turned over to the court.

Attorneys representing the National Urban League and other groups suing the government are asking for a preliminary injunction blocking the government from concluding the nationwide count on Sept. 30.

Koh signaled concern with sudden decision by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross to move up the agreed-to deadline from October 31. She pointed out that it is unlikely the Census Bureau will  reach its goal of 99% response rate for completion by next week.

"Four out of 50 states reached the threshold for closing," she said, referencing the Census Bureau's latest data. "Why is the bureau insisting on ending data collection in seven days? ... That means 46 states have not met the requirements yet," according to CNN.

One of the government's arguments contended that the Constitution's requirement to conduct a count of the U.S. population every 10 years does not specify whether or how it should be accurate.

Census officials said that over 60% of the households have self-responded and that door-to-door Census workers pushed the rate to over 90% therefore, a deadline extension is not needed

However, those claims seem dubious with data provided by the Census. Minnesota is leading the country in self-response rates to the 2020 census while Puerto Rico, a U.S. territory, is dead last, according to Census Bureau data.

Nearly 75% of Minnesota residents responded to the census by phone or mail or online, while just 34% of Puerto Rico residents self-responded.

The states or territories with the highest self-response percentage rates (as of Saturday) are:
Minnesota, 74.6 
Washington, 71.8 
Wisconsin 71.8 
Nebraska, 71.4 
Iowa, 70.8 
Michigan 70.8 
Illinois, 70.5 
Virginia, 70.5 
Utah, 70.4 
Maryland, 70.3 

The states or territories with the lowest self-response rates (as of Saturday) are:
Puerto Rico, 34.2
Alaska, 53.8
West Virginia, 55.9 
New Mexico, 57.3
Maine, 57.8 
Louisiana, 59.3 
Montana, 59.5 
Mississippi, 59.6 
Vermont 60.
South Carolina, 60.1
Arkansas, 60.1

The Census is not going well for New York City and Los Angeles, home to the country's largest immigrant communities. The count effort for NYC is at 60% and even worse for L.A. at 57.2%, far below the national average.

Census data is used to determine the number of members of Congress and who they would represent. The data is also used by government agencies to determine the allocation trillions of dollars of social service funds and infrastructure funds.

At the end of the hearing when she rendered her ruling, apparently exasperated at the the government attorneys' behavior, Koh said, "Go ahead and appeal me."

EDITOR'S NOTE: A word of caution, this article is news laced with opinion. Readers are encouraged to seek multiple news sources to formulate their own positions.