DETROIT – Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Rep. Rashida Tlaib announced Wednesday they’re preparing to challenge the result of the 2020 Census.
They claim the process was deficient and haphazard. The announcement came as low response rates plagued the city of Detroit throughout the entire process.
City and state officials argued that more time was needed to count due to the hurdles posed by COVID-19. After an extension and a removal of the extension, instead of the count continuing through Oct. 31, the 2020 Census was abruptly ended Oct. 15 by the Supreme Court. Based on the preliminary numbers, it left the state of Michigan easily up to 10,000 households short, cost the state at least one congressional seat and shortchanges the state by as much as $300 million per year in federal funding for the next 10 years.
Duggan said it’s dirty tricks by the feds that will hurt Detroiters.
The city of Detroit is in a lawsuit against the federal government to prove it counted Detroit properly. It is basically preemptively challenging the Census Bureau into proving Detroit was properly counted and thereby forcing congressional oversight over the Bureau.
The thought process is that if the city can show a pattern of a less diligent or professional count effort in Detroit compared to other cities or states, Detroit will be in a very powerful position to appeal and fight the federal government to fix it. If it turns out they’re wrong and the count was done properly, the prevailing thought process seems to be “no harm, no foul.”
Census workers who may have more information about poor management of the U.S. Census process in Detroit are asked to call 866-20-Count.
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