Image: Anastasiia_New - Getty Images
2020 Census illustration
Wisconsin needs to take a hard look at its 2020 Census count.
First, full disclosure, as my opinion is anything but objective. I worked for the Census from the spring of 2019 until the fall of 2020 as a partnership specialist. My job was to work with several counties in Central and Southwestern Wisconsin promoting community engagement.
The Wisconsin Census team was expected to generate partnerships that could lead to greater participation. The federal government was spending hundreds of millions of dollars promoting the Census, but in the end a lot of it would come down to these one-to-one connections between business and community leaders and people like myself.
Yes, we were “feds,” but people were generally inclined to believe us—I think because we were local. Away from politics, the Census is largely about money. Your population count has a direct impact on how much of the $1.5 trillion dollars in federal aid is targeted to your state.
If we could translate those local connections into a productive partnership with local businesses or school boards, it could generate a more accurate Census. If a community could prove its population had grown in the last ten years, it might qualify for more federal aid. An incentive to make sure everyone gets counted.
Early in January of 2020 the word came down from headquarters in Chicago that we weren’t generating enough partnerships. It wasn’t just in Wisconsin but across the country, partly due to COVID restrictions. But at the same time we were pulled from the field, we were also assigned to dramatically beef up our numbers.
Working our phone lists, we reached out to countless local leaders asking them to be partners. Again, most agreed, but our bosses told us we still weren’t getting enough partners. Then we were told to start adding names of groups or individuals who might be interested in joining but not to bother asking them, just add their name the master list.
The mind-numbing illogic of “sign them up but don’t tell them,” was beyond comprehension. What was made abundantly clear about the instruction was that if we didn’t like the program we could resign.
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Pump Up the Numbers?
That’s when we filed the Whistleblower complaint.
Three of us, myself and two other Partnership Specialists, had had enough. As far as we were concerned, we were pumping the numbers with falsified partnerships. Census had promised Congress hundreds of thousands of partnerships and were pulling out all the stops to make it happen.
It was around Christmas of 2020 when the three of us filed a two-page complaint outlining what we thought was wrong with the program. The next thing we heard was from the Inspector General’s office in the Commerce Department asking us to give up our promised anonymity. We took a pass.
Two months later we heard the Inspector General had ordered an investigation. However, our delight was short lived when we realized the IG had ordered the Census to investigate itself.
Great, but investigate itself? Six months later imagine our surprise when their final report was filled with glowing praise for what a good job they did on the program. We whistleblowers were dismissed as malcontents.
The Inspector General’s office then boldly recommended taking no action on our complaint.
Failed Census?
Lately there has been some solace in the fact media organizations have also been investigating what’s widely being called the “failed 2020 Census,” resulting in some states and cities reexamining their counts.
A Census survey conceded it had miscounts in 14 states. Florida lost two electoral votes and two House seats due to their lower counts. Texas lost one house seat and an electoral vote. Minnesota and Rhode Island each kept a seat they were expected to lose. Those states will have to decide whether they want to appeal the counts.
Boston is filing a formal challenge to the Census’ conclusion that it lost thousands of citizens in 2020. The more likely explanation is colleges lost student counts because of the pandemic shutdown. It’s expected the city will also challenge the Census Bureau’s count of immigrants and jail populations.
The Brennan Center for Justice released a report saying Census missed some 5% of our nation’s population which equates to 19 million people. This in addition to disproportionately undercounting people of color, with the Latino undercount at a rate more than tripling the 2010 Census.
The Pew Research Center say Census’ own Count Question Resolution program has drawn complaints from 20 local and state governments so far, including Puerto Rico. All are upset about their numbers and want them reviewed.
One of the nine Wisconsin communities pursuing corrections from the Census Bureau is Belvidere in Buffalo County. Ironically, village leaders are upset because the Census Bureau is insisting that 403 people live there while the village (and the Wisconsin Department of Administration) says there are only 386.
Those 17 “people” are significant because bills like recycling are often based upon population. If the numbers aren’t changed, Belvidere could end up paying the bill for 17 people who, literally, don’t exist.
County Clerk Deborah Ruff says she finds Census people difficult to work with. “They keep asking for proofs which I send, but all they do is telling me I’m wrong but won’t tell me why. I just wish I could get a human on the phone.”
“Arduous,” is how Fontana’s Village Administrator, Theresa Loomer, describes dealing with Census officials. This after Census added an extra 1250 more people to its population base of nearly 1900.
Back on the Map
The bureau apparently moved a group quarters from one map to another making it part of Fontana. Loomer credits the Wisconsin Department of Administration with getting the quarters back onto the correct map.
Governor Evers, from having worked more than a year for the Bureau, I can tell you it is less than perfect like most government bureaucracies. But this decennial Census appears to be particularly poorly done. Interference from the Trump administration. Shortened deadlines. Undercounts. Wide swaths of people missed. Pick a problem.
Myself and the colleagues who filed the whistleblower complaint are passionate about Wisconsin. Our lives and our families are here. This is our home.
Towns are complaining across Wisconsin—as well as the nation—about Census 2020. Under Census rules, as the head of the state, you have until next summer to formally question the counts and I encourage you to do so. Investigating the count will be the only way we can trust their numbers.
Postscript
I’ve now been gone from the Census Bureau longer than I worked there. In mid-September, The Chicago Census office called and wanted to talk to me about a new job. We talked. I declined.
I assumed having a job dangled was either a clumsy attempt at a bribe or yet another example of their institutional incompetence. In the 1960s, an infamous cartoon character named Pogo once opined he “had seen the enemy and it was us.”
For the Census Bureau, I suggest the next time you criticize those who review your work, consider looking in a mirror first.
For the record, the Census Bureau says Wisconsin’s population grew just over 3.5% from 5.7 million to 5.9 million in the last ten years.
