Ross asked if ending the census earlier would generate numbers in Trump’s current term


Ross wrote in an email to some senior Census Bureau officials that he appreciated their “excellent briefing this afternoon,” where they were informed that as the census ends on October 5, as many as 10 states will not meet the standard for a full count.

But instead of asking about the results of the incomplete count, Ross asked about the result to continue the counting.

The email was released late Tuesday night as part of a lawsuit over the Trump administration’s efforts to end the pre-scheduled census.

The change comes as the National Urban League and other groups claiming Ross have accused him of trying to complete the census as soon as possible so that numbers can be generated during Trump’s tenure. He says the administration could allow undocumented immigrants to be excluded from the calculation used to distribute seats in Congress – the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s administration if he does not win the election and finalize the numbers under his supervision.

Prosecutors have denied the claim because it was beyond the scope of this scheduled controversy.

“As I prepare to make a decision, I want to make sure that your team’s opinion is that I have properly understood that if we remain in the field beyond 5 October, we will not be able to meet the legal deadline of 31 December. . ” Ross wrote.

Ron Jarmin, a senior census bureau official, commented that the December 31 deadline could be completed by October 5.

Officials released a forecast that a meeting on Monday afternoon would result in an incomplete count of as many as 10 states by the end of the 2020 census, according to internal documents released by the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau on Tuesday.

The states that cannot reach perfection are Alabama, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina and South Carolina.

It could take up to Oct. 11 to bring all 50 states into the census bureau’s 99% household enumeration target, bureau officials told Ross.

The presentation said that even among the states with an expiration rate of more than 999%, there will be sub-state areas which are below 99% due to Covid-119 restrictions, especially tribal areas.

They also told Ross that ending the nationwide count on October 5 was the last possible hope to reduce the numbers by the end of this year, which Ross told them to do.

Within hours of this release, Ross settled down on October 5, internal documents show.

Uncertainty over how much time is left to count the country’s population and knock on the door of the house has injected unprecedented levels of chaos in the final week of the census.
Federal law set a December 31 deadline for the census to be used to distribute seats in Congress, but Census Bureau officials have been saying for months that it is impossible to reach a date when producing an accurate count of the country’s population.

He and the Trump administration asked Congress for an extension due to the coronavirus epidemic that would include a response accepted by October 31.

The administration then backed the request at the same time that President Donald Trump announced in late July that he would try to exclude undocumented immigrants from the final figure. “Any thoughtful person who believes we can divide by 12/31 is either mentally defective or politically motivated,” a Census Bureau official overseeing field workers wrote at the time.
In early August, Ross decided that the count would be considered over by the end of September. A federal court barred it from affecting the deadline, but did not specifically reschedule the October 31 deadline.

A federal judge overseeing the proceedings has considered declaring December 31 unconstitutional.

The story and headline have been updated with new developments on the decision of Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

Caroline Kelly of CNN contributed to this report.

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