One River Place blends easily into the dense forest of Manhattan skyscrapers, its vanity address camouflaging its precise location. Still, even in New York City, a 40-story tower containing 900 apartments should be difficult to miss.

But the Census Bureau did. read more >>

Some 100,000 people who were living in San Francisco on April 1, 2000, were not counted by that year’s Census workers, city officials have claimed.read more >>

December 29, 2009

The Census Bureau gave political junkies a gift last week with the release of its latest population estimates, data that give very good indications of which states are set to gain congressional seats and which will lose them in the 2011 redistricting process.

According to Polidata projections (the best in the business), eight states are positioned to gain one or more seats in the remapping and 10 states are slated to lose a seat or more.read more >>

Dec. 14, 2009

A local $1.2-million foundation-led effort to boost participation in the 2010 Census is putting the Chicago area at the forefront of preparations for the decennial head-counting.

“Some groups and some areas are not as energized as others,” U.S. Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said Monday at a press briefing in Washington, D. C. “Chicago is a model for other regions” because local nonprofits are able to pursue outreach efforts with funding from a group of foundations and Chicago-based Boeing Co. read more >>

October 28, 2009

A Republican senator’s proposal to count only United States citizens when reapportioning Congress would cost California five seats and New York and Illinois one each, according to an independent analysis of census data released Tuesday. Texas, which is projected to gain three seats after the 2010 census, would get only one.

The proposed change would spare Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania the expected loss of one seat each. Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon and South Carolina would each gain a seat.read more >>

With the start of the 2010 census just a few months away, Senator David Vitter, a Republican of Louisiana, wants to cut off financing for the count unless the survey includes a question asking if the respondent is a United States citizen. Aides say he plans to submit an amendment to the census appropriation bill soon.read more >>

Look out: Obama is sending his minions to your house. The deep history of a conspiracy theory.

read more >>

Monday, October 12,2009

A press release issued by The Census Project today announces that the U.S. Senate is expected to vote on an amendment this week to the pending 2010 Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations bill, which would have the effect of excluding undocumented residents and possible non-citizens from being counted as part of Census 2010 for purposes of congressional apportionment. The amendment to the Census Bureau's FY 2010 budget, included in the CJS appropriations bill, will be offered by Senators David Vitter (R-La.) and Bob Bennett (R-Utah).read more >>

September 24, 2009

MANCHESTER, Ky. – When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drew on years of experience for a warning: "Be careful."

The 51-year-old Sparkman was found this month hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery with the word "fed" scrawled on his chest, a law enforcement official said Wednesday, and the FBI is investigating whether he was a victim of anti-government sentiment.read more >>

September 18, 2009

WASHINGTON — In America, democracy follows the simple principle of one person, one vote, right? Unless, that is, you live in Montana, where your vote carries a little more than half as much weight in the House of Representatives as that of someone living in Rhode Island. Or if you live in Utah, where your vote counts about two-thirds as much as it would in Iowa.

Redrawing the lines will address some of the population shifts over the last decade, but much of the disparity will remain, because it is built into the system. In theory, every member of the House represents roughly the same number of people. But because each state gets at least one seat, no matter how small its population, and because the overall size of the House has not changed in a century, the number of people represented by a single congressman can vary widely.read more >>

September 10th, 2009

Certain interesting election law bills in Congress have gained a few co-sponsors since Congress came back into session.

HR 2499, the bill to set up a vote on Puerto Rico’s future status, now has 164 co-sponsors, up one since last month.

HR 2894, Rush Holt’s bill for better vote-counting machines, now has 89 co-sponsors, up six since last month.

HR 3025, to require bipartisan commissions in each state to draw U.S. House boundaries, has not gained any co-sponsors since last month and still has 22.read more >>

By Myrna Pérez
08/11/09

In the inaccurately titled opinion piece ("Our Unconstitutional Census") published on August 9 in the Wall Street Journal, Messrs. Baker and Stonecipher, a constitutional law professor and pollster respectively, falsely claim that the current practice of counting undocumented persons in the census for the purpose of apportionment is unconstitutional. read more >>

White House: Census to better count gay couples

Friday, June 19, 2009

Redistricting drive could reshape politics

William March
Tampa Tribune
Sunday June 7, 2009

TAMPA - To the average citizen, it sounds like the most boring subject in government - a movement to reform the process of drawing legislative district boundaries.

That movement, however, could reshape Florida politics.read more >>

On May 7, the President is expected to release his detailed budget request for Fiscal Year 2010, which begins October 1, 2009 and includes funding for final census preparations such as staffing all Local Census Offices (LCOs), launch of the 2010 census advertising campaign, and implementation of the census through mailed and hand-delivered questionnaires and follow-up visits to unresponsive households.read more >>

With just a year to go until Census Day, a nonprofit group that follows census issues reports that residents of Hidalgo and Cameron Counties in Texas, and Bronx County, N.Y., face the greatest chances of being missed by census takers.

Those facing the lowest chance: Anyone living in Wyoming.

The estimates were developed by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, using Census Bureau planning databases, and released by the Census Project whose members include policy planners, demographers and citizen-rights advocates.read more >>

In the latest example of the controversy and confusion that tends to swirl around the U.S. Census, some immigration advocates in Orange County are calling on illegal immigrants to boycott the 2010 survey, but other advocates of the same cause are saying that's a huge mistake.

The intent of the National Coalition of Latino and Clergy and Christian Leaders is to pressure Congress to pass immigration reform and protect illegal immigrants from deportation, according to the Orange County Register.read more >>

Resources on Redistricting (for more details, click here)

MANUALS and ARTICLES
Brennan Center, A Citizen’s Guide to Redistricting (2008). General background on redistricting.
Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund & National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium,
The Impact of Redistricting in Your Community: A Guide to Redistricting (2000). Manual designed to facilitate community involvement in redistricting.read more >>

There is no more long form. The 2010 Census motto: ``Ten questions, 10 minutes.''read more >>

In 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau will issue a call to action for every resident of our nation: “Be Counted.”

The 2010 Census is important. It determines the distribution of $300 billion annually of government funding for critical community services. It generates thousands of jobs across the country.read more >>

March 12 (Bloomberg) -- The 2010 U.S. census may provide an extra kick to the U.S. economy, just as the effects of President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan start to take hold.

The census will put more than 1.4 million people on the federal payroll over the next year, making it the largest peacetime government jobs program ever, according to the Census Bureau. The first 140,000 will start work in April. Most of the rest will be hired early in 2010. read more >>

The contretemps over Judd Gregg's aborted nomination to be commerce secretary reveal once again the fault lines over the 2010 census between Republicans and Democrats. Gregg's difference with the administration over economic policy attracted much of the attention, but the census also reportedly played a major role in the whole affair.read more >>

The Census Bureau faces a leadership void less than 14 months before the 2010 Census rolls out.

The agency is without a director and may not get one until someone is picked and confirmed to run the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau.

So far, two men nominated by President Obama for Commerce secretary — New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, and Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. — have dropped out.read more >>