2/8/2018

CENSUS: “The U.S. Census Bureau has announced it will change the way it counts troops deployed overseas, while keeping its policy on counting prisoners for the upcoming national headcount in 2020. How these two populations are factored into the 2020 census could affect the balance of power in government at both the federal and local levels.
For the last census in 2010, all overseas military personnel were counted at the address they provided at enlistment. But in 2020, deployed service members will be counted as residents of the bases or ports they were temporarily assigned away from, according to a memo released this week by the Census Bureau.
Incarcerated people will continue to be counted as residents of their correctional facilities, despite calls to count them at their home addresses… For many of the communities surrounding military bases around the country, the bureau’s decision is seen as a long-awaited victory after years of advocating for a change in policy…
The Census Bureau’s decision on counting deployed troops could raise the populations of Kentucky and other states with military bases. That, in turn, could help them gain more power in Congress when seats in the House of Representatives are divided up between the states based on their new headcounts from the 2020 census…
Advocates for an overhaul of the policy on counting incarcerated people, however, say they’re disappointed with the bureau’s decision for 2020…
The overwhelming majority of the close to 78,000 public comments the bureau received regarding how it counts prisoners supported counting them as residents of where they lived before they were incarcerated, according to a document the bureau prepared to publish in the Federal Register.”

-Julie Rovner and Shefali Luthra, “2020 Census To Count Deployed Troops At Home Bases, Prisoners At Facilities,” NPR, Feb. 8, 2018 05:02am