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A28 u.s. news
Dialuna 9 augustus 2021

Census experts puzzled by high rate of unanswered questions

at a more sinister possibility. all modes of responding — dents,” Census Bureau of-
They say the Trump admin- online, by paper, by phone or ficials Roberto Ramirez and
istration’s attempt to end the face-to-face interviews. Christine Borman wrote re-
count early and failed efforts cently in a blog post.
to put a citizenship ques- “These blank responses left
tion on the form and exclude holes in the data which we The Census Bureau in April
people who were in the U.S. had to fill,” Jarmin said. released state population to-
illegally had a chilling effect. tals from the 2020 census.
In a statement last week to Those are used to divvy up
“I think it’s the pandemic and The Associated Press, Jarmin the number of congressio-
Trump. The very threat that declined to go into details, nal seats in each state dur-
citizenship was on the ques- saying only that the bureau ing a once-a-decade process
tionnaire, the very notion it would release updated rates known as apportionment.
might have been on it, may later this month “based on
have deterred some Latinos the correct numbers.” The agency released a slide
from filling it out,” said An- deck presentation about the
(AP) - Census Bureau gles. drew Beveridge, a sociologist To fill in the holes, Census high rate of unanswered
statisticians and outside at Queens College and the Bureau statisticians searched questions, along with group
experts are trying to un- The information is impor- City University of New York other administrative records housing records and the
ravel a mystery: Why were tant because data with demo- Graduate School and Uni- such as tax forms, Social Se- first details about the rate of
so many questions about graphic details will be used versity Center. “I think a lot curity card applications or non-responses, in response
households in the 2020 for drawing congressional of us are flabbergasted by it. previous censuses to find to an open records request
census left unanswered? and legislative districts. That It is a very high number.” people’s race, age, sex and from Fair Lines American
data, which the Census Bu- Hispanic background. Foundation. The Republi-
Residents did not respond reau will release Thursday, Ruggles initially thought it can advocacy group sued the
to a multitude of questions also is used to distribute $1.5 had to do with the software If available records didn’t Census Bureau for informa-
about sex, race, Hispanic trillion in federal spending used by people who an- turn up the information tion about how the count
background, family relation- each year. swered online — about two- needed, they turned to the was conducted in dorms,
ships and age, even when thirds of U.S. households. statistical technique called prisons, nursing homes and
providing a count of the The documents, made public Other countries such as imputation that the Census other places where people
number of people living in in response to an open re- Australia and Canada, which Bureau has used for 60 years. live in groups. Fair Lines says
the home, according to docu- cords request from a Repub- have used similar software The technique has been chal- it’s concerned about the ac-
ments released by the agency. lican redistricting advocacy for censuses, saw the num- lenged and upheld in courts curacy of the group housing
Statisticians had to fill in the group, don’t shed much light ber of unanswered questions after past censuses. count and wants to make sure
gaps. on why questions were left drop to almost zero because anomalies didn’t affect the
unanswered, though theo- respondents couldn’t pro- In some cases, statisticians state population figures.
Reflecting an early stage in ries abound. Some observ- ceed if they didn’t answer a looked for information an-
the number crunching, the ers say software used in the question. swered about one member With the information show-
documents show that 10% first census in which most of a family, such as race, and ing high rates of imputation,
to 20% of questions were not Americans could respond “I guess in the U.S. version applied it to another member some Republican-controlled
answered in the 2020 census, online allowed people to skip they must just have accept- that had blank answers. Or states may try to leave college
depending on the question questions. Others say the ed incomplete responses,” they assigned a sex based on students out of redistrict-
and state. According to the pandemic made it harder to Ruggles said. “If the non-re- the respondent’s first name. ing data, claiming they were
Census Bureau, later phases reach people who didn’t re- sponse rate was consistently In other cases, when the en- also counted at their parents’
of processing show the actual spond. high across response mode, tire household had no infor- homes, to get a partisan edge,
rates were lower. that is just strange.” mation, they filled it in using said Jeffrey Wice, a Demo-
Confusion over some ques- data of similar neighbors. cratic redistricting expert.
The rates have averaged 1% tions, including traditional Acting Census Bureau Di- “Imputation has been shown
to 3% in 170 years of previ- uncertainty among Hispanics rector Ron Jarmin said re- to improve data quality and “That will be hard to prove
ous U.S. censuses, according about how to answer the race cently in a blog post that the accuracy compared to leaving but would inject more uncer-
to University of Minnesota question, may have been a blank answers spanned all these fields blank, or without tainty and possible delay into
demographer Steven Rug- factor, but some experts hint categories of questions and information from respon- redistricting,” Wice said.

Pandemic set off deadly rise in speeding that hasn't stopped

(AP) — Motorists put the higher death toll was related centage of fatalities for which NHTSA estimates. It was the
pedal to the metal during to higher average speeds in speeding was the primary A Mainer used a rented Ford deadliest year on highways
the pandemic and police conjunction with more of cause and the total number Mustang GT with 130 gal- since 2007.
are worried as roads get those on the roads driving of speeding tickets grew from lons worth of fuel tanks to set
busy with the final stretch under the influence of drugs January through June, com- a solo record for racing from At the same time, motorists
of summer travel. and alcohol and a slight de- pared to the year before the New York to Los Angeles in feel safer speeding because
cline in seatbelt use. pandemic, officials said. 25 hours, 55 minutes. A team they are putting too much
The latest data shows the set a new record soon after faith in air bags, anti-lock
number of highway deaths in Motorists do not seem to be With police distracted by his record-setting jaunt. brakes and other safety fea-
2020 was the greatest in more slowing down. civil disobedience and scaling tures, he said.
than a decade even though back routine stops for safety, The National Highway Traf-
cars and trucks drove fewer Tickets issued by the Cali- the lightly traveled roads fic Safety Administration Unfortunately there’s no
miles during the pandemic. fornia Highway Patrol for quickly turned into the wild sounded the warning early in silver bullet to reversing the
speeding in excess of 100 west in many places. In New the pandemic about speeding trend.
“Summer is an incredibly mph from January to June York City, super cars like and reckless driving.
dangerous time. And it cul- were nearly double pre-pan- Ferraris and Lamborghinis
minates with Labor Day, that demic levels, and the number blazed down empty streets, In the end, traffic deaths na-
last hurrah,” said Pam Shadel of tickets for reckless driving with roaring engines disturb- tionwide in 2020 grew about
Fischer of the Governors citations grew, as well, offi- ing residents trying to sleep. 7.2% to 38,680 even though
Highway Safety Association. cials said. Motorists from coast to coast there was a 13.2% reduc-
were ticketed at eye-watering tion in the number of miles
Traffic data indicates the In New York state, the per- speeds. traveled, according to the