Let the challenges begin! Time for contesting census is here

Detroit’s mayor believes tens of thousands of residents in the majority-Black city were missed in the 2020 census. At the start of the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau began accepting challenges from states, counties, cities and tribal nations about one of the most difficult counts in recent memory, due to the pandemic, political interference from the Trump administration, hurricanes and wildfires. The scope for making challenges through the Count Question Resolution program is narrow, and few local governments got their numbers changed after the 2010 census. Along with concerns about undercounted racial and ethnic groups and college students, some small towns believe a new privacy method the Census Bureau used for the first time skewed their numbers. Given the 2020 problems counting people in dorms, military barracks, nursing homes and prisons during the pandemic, the Census Bureau has proposed creating a separate program to accept challenges for these “group quarters.” State, city and tribal officials have been sounding the alarm about the counts because students were sent home from campuses, and prisons and nursing homes went into lockdowns when those residents were supposed to be counted.