A misplaced naval ship in California, overlooked students in New York City and missed inmates in Texas are some of the reasons why the two most populous states and the largest city in the U.S. have filed last-minute requests for 2020 census corrections.
In total, nearly 200 requests for corrections were filed by local, state and tribal governments through two programs started by the U.S. Census Bureau to give governments opportunities to have their population totals reviewed and corrected if need be.
CALIFORNIA
The slip-up, so to speak, reportedly took place on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln. California officials believe its more than 5,000 crew members were wrongly assigned to San Diego's population total instead of neighboring National City's figures. Although part of the ship is located in San Diego, officials said what matters is where crew members get off and on the ship: the part of Naval Base San Diego in National City.
“Kansas doesn't have this problem,” said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs for the Department of Finance in California, the most populated U.S. state with 39 million residents.
California officials also contend that almost 10,000 college students and inmates were overlooked during the census. They were among the most difficult to count as campuses closed and prisons were locked down at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, which coincided with the beginning of the head count. The Census Bureau created a separate program to handle these challenges.
California officials said they waited until the deadline to make their filings because they wanted to first see if local municipalities would file requests.
If successful, any corrections will be applied only to future population estimates used for the rest of the decade in determining federal funding. They can't be used to change how many congressional seats each state was allotted during the appointment process, nor for the data used for redrawing political districts. That's too bad for some cities and states — not to mention the two major political parties fighting over every foot of territory in a closely divided nation.
