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A26 u.s. news
Dialuna 31 Mei 2021

Conservatives aim at Census’ method for uncounted households

(AP) - When U.S. Census are as accurate as possible,’ didn’t know how the group-
Bureau workers couldn’t you could be signaling to housing count records would
find out any information your own constituents and be used, but he added, “I am
about some households followers that they ought not concerned this is a backdoor
after repeatedly mail- to bother participating in the way of slowly using sampling
ing them questionnaire future,” said Lowenthal, a in the count.”
reminders and sending former congressional staffer
census takers to knock who specializes in census is- The initial batch of Fair Lines
on their doors, the stat- sues. documents included a slide-
isticians turned to an ob- show that indicated the Cen-
scure, last-resort statisti- The Census Bureau has sus used the statistical tech-
cal technique known as been using the technique on nique to get a head count in
“imputation.” households since the 1960 43,000 separate group hous-
blog post earlier this year. expense of states like Ari- census, and it was challenged ing facilities. That included
Less than 1% of households “By using imputation, we fill zona, Florida and Texas, he and upheld in courts after 5,500 college housing units,
were counted using the tech- in what we don’t know, using said in an essay for The Cla- censuses in 1980 and 2000. which Torchinsky said were
nique during the 2020 cen- information we do know.” remont Institute, a conserva- The Supreme Court has a special concern given the
sus. But some conservative tive think tank. ruled that the Census Bu- number of students who re-
political groups are ques- The focus for conservatives reau can’t use sampling — a located last year. They could
tioning it, potentially laying is on how this technique was Korzeniewski called the tech- method of using a subset of have been double-counted
a foundation for legal chal- applied to college dorms, nique “the most grievous” is- people to estimate character- at their parents’ homes and
lenges to the data that will ul- nursing homes, prisons and sue involving the 2020 cen- istics of the whole population in the dorms through impu-
timately be used for drawing other places where people sus, which determines how — but the justices have said tation, he said, though the
congressional and legislative live in groups. These resi- many congressional seats that imputation is different Census Bureau says it elimi-
districts. dents were particularly diffi- and Electoral College votes from sampling. nates duplicate responses
cult to count during the 2020 each state gets, as well as the Now that the Supreme Court during the numbers-crunch-
Imputation involves using census because the pandemic distribution of $1.5 trillion has a solid conservative ma- ing phase of the 2020 census.
information about neighbors sent college students fleeing in federal funding each year. jority, Korzeniewski said it’s
with similar characteristics campuses and put nursing He urged states and courts possible the court could re- Still, Torchinsky said he
to fill in head counts or de- homes in lockdown. In re- to take action on it “immedi- verse itself. wasn’t sure if the use of the
mographic characteristics for sponse, the Census Bureau ately.” technique skewed to favor
households lacking data. For unexpectedly decided to Saying Korzeniewski’s essay “Given the change in the Su- some areas more than others.
instance, a rowhouse with no use the technique for group cherry-picked facts and mis- preme Court balance, it is
information may be count- housing, where about 3% of represented the technique, possible for the court to limit ”We don’t know exactly what
ed as having two people if a the U.S. population lives. demographer Bill O’Hare imputation precisely because they did yet, because they’re
neighboring rowhouse is oc- said he doubted any chal- of its disparate impact,” Ko- being less than transparent
cupied by two people. The In a recent essay, Adam Ko- lenge would succeed. rzeniewski said. about it, but I’m not ready
technique tends to be uti- rzeniewski, a controversial to conclude it helps or hurts
lized in hard-to-count places, former political appointee Census expert Terri Ann Separately, a Republican- one set of states because we
often with racial and ethnic assigned to a top position at Lowenthal said there’s a risk oriented redistricting advo- just don’t know what they
minorities, where people the Census Bureau during of undermining confidence cacy group sued the Census did,” he said.
haven’t answered the census the Trump administration, in the census by planting Bureau two weeks ago under
questionnaire and could oth- speculated that the technique seeds of doubt without any the Freedom of Informa- During their brief tenure at
erwise go uncounted. favors liberal states over con- proof of inaccuracies caused tion Act to get records deal- the Census Bureau, the sta-
servative states. by the method, which has ing with the group-housing tistical technique was on the
been scrutinized by nonpar- count, saying it had “sig- minds of Nathaniel Cogley,
“It makes the overall dataset As applied to group housing, tisan experts for decades. nificant implications for our whom the Trump adminis-
— or census in this case — it favored the Northeast with nation’s redistricting and tration named as the agency’s
more accurate than leaving its density of college cam- “If you say, ‘We don’t trust electoral process.” Fair Lines deputy director for policy,
the gaps blank,” Pat Cantwell, puses and stricter lockdowns the Census Bureau to pro- America Foundation attor- and Korzeniewski, Cogley’s
a bureau official, said in a during the pandemic, at the duce objective numbers that ney Jason Torchinsky said he senior advisor.

Buttigieg urges travelers to respect mask mandates on planes

(AP) — Transportation “And of course, there’s very has to do with the conditions penalties as high as $15,000 Southwest and American
Secretary Pete Buttigieg serious fines and enforce- of it being a workplace, and against five passengers for Airlines said they would hold
on Sunday urged travel- ment around that,” Buttigieg folks who really don’t have a violations that included al- off on resuming alcoholic
ers to respect flight at- added. choice about being there, the legedly assaulting and yelling beverage services because of
tendants and other crew way it is in some other cases.” at flight attendants. recent incidents of passenger
members who enforce Buttigieg said the federal disruption.
federal mask mandates on mask mandate, which re- Centers for Disease Con- Southwest Airlines last week The FAA says reports of un-
planes, pledging strict fed- mains in effect on planes, trol and Prevention guide- also banned a woman ac- ruly passenger behavior has
eral enforcement against buses and trains until Sept. lines say that fully vaccinated cused of punching a flight at- been on the rise this year as
such abuse at a time of in- 13, continues to be driven by people can go without face tendant shortly after a plane more travelers return to the
creasingly unruly behav- public health considerations. coverings inside and outside from Sacramento, California, skies. According to the agen-
ior by passengers. He stressed that travelers various public areas. landed in San Diego on May cy, from Jan. 1 through May
should abide by it as both a 23. The airline said the pas- 24, there were roughly 2,500
“The flight crews and oth- matter of safety and respect “These rules and regulations senger ignored instructions reports of unruly behavior by
er workers you encounter, to transportation workers. and these bodies of guidance from the flight attendant be- passengers, including about
they’re doing their job,” he always evolve with the sci- fore assaulting her. San Di- 1,900 reports of people refus-
said. “They’re following reg- “Part of it has to do with the ence,” Buttigieg said. ego Harbor Police arrested ing to comply with the fed-
ulations and they’re there to unique conditions of the Vyvianna Quinonez, 28, and eral mask mandate.
keep you safe. It is absolutely physical space,” Buttigieg His admonition comes af- charged her with felony bat-
unacceptable to ever mistreat said, explaining the extra ter the Federal Aviation Ad- tery. Buttigieg spoke on ABC’s
a transportation worker. COVID-19 precautions for ministration announced last “This Week” and CNN’s
crowded spaces. “Part of it week it was proposing civil Over the weekend, both “State of the Union.”