Census 2020: Accurate Count Essential

Disinformation in the era of social media? I’m shocked.

To stay secure, remember that the Census Bureau will never ask for your full Social Security number, or your bank account or credit card numbers, or for money or donations - but scammers pretending to be from the bureau will.

Ten questions ask about respondents’ name, sex, age, race, telephone number and whether they own or rent. There are no questions about religion, whether one is a legal resident or whether one has a Social Security number.

When the Trump administration proposed adding a citizenship question, opponents cried foul. They said the question would intimidate noncitizens into not responding, which would result in undercounts in districts with many noncitizens. The administration eventually dropped that idea.

Here’s the latest battle, according to Roll Call: “Under pressure from the Trump administration to end the count early, the (Census) agency will conclude all enumeration efforts on Sept. 30, and then comb through data before wrapping up the whole process by Dec. 31 - half the time the agency originally anticipated after delaying its initial schedule because of the pandemic.”

Trump opponents say this could cause undercounting in minority communities. The administration says modern technologies and efficiencies enable an accurate count and meeting its statutory deadline of Dec. 31, 2020.

In an era when everything is hopelessly political and political opponents loathe and distrust each other, one thing really matters.

It's essential that we get our census data right. -

Copyright 2020 Tom Purcell. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadventures of a 1970's Childhood," a humorous memoir available at amazon.com, is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist and is nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons Inc. For info on using this column in your publication or website, contact Sales@cagle.com or call (805) 969-2829. Send comments to Tom at Tom@TomPurcell.com.