The Trump administration defended the citizenship question by saying it was needed to better enforce the Voting Rights Act, which relies on accurate estimates of voting-eligible populations. This month, they added, President Trump’s re-election campaign used the addition of a citizenship question in an emailed fund-raising appeal. The only full dress rehearsal of the 2020 census, unfolding this month in Providence County, R.I., has been scaled back in some areas. Tens of thousands of forms mailed to local residents this month do not contain the citizenship question. “The effect of adding a citizenship question to the 2020 census on data quality and census accuracy, therefore, is completely unknown.”Several of the states suing the Trump administration are run by Democrats, who risk losing representation if the census undercounts people of color.

Source: New York Times March 27, 2018 23:15 UTC