Why was I was not counted in the 2020 census?
"I hope all of you are going to fill out your census form when it comes in the mail next month. If you don't return the form, the area you live in might get less government money, and you wouldn't want that to happen, would you." wrote Andy Rooney on February 26, 2010
Rijeka is the lovely Croatian port city on the Adriatic Sea where I was stranded from January 30, 2020, to June 30, 2020, because of the coronavirus outbreak and its travel restrictions.
And so learning that came as a shock on April 1, what the government calls Census Day because the headcount aspires to reflect where every American lived that day. After dutifully logging on to the census website from a computer in Croatia, I got no further than "Access Denied. You don't have permission to access 2020census.gov on this server."
I quickly learned, however, that I could be fined $100 for refusing to complete a census form and $500 for answering questions falsely. And then I found out, on the Census Bureau website's "How We Count America." page, that "If you live outside the country, and you are not employed by the U.S. government or as a member of the U.S. military, you are NOT counted in this census." (Peek on one source.)
Do you know that the Census Bureau still needs to be constitutionally mandated to count Americans abroad?
Of course, it's not just about me. Nine million American citizens live and work in more than 160 countries worldwide. The American diaspora's size is about 3 percent of the official national population, equivalent to the combined headcounts for Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Tucson.
"That's a good question, I wasn't really aware it was happening right now; I'm not sure how to access it!" exclaimed Digital Nomad Bryan Tobian of Marion County, Indiana, who was stuck in Zaton, Croatia, on Census Day, in response to my question, “Are you counted?”
Why? Read the Census Bureau’s report, “Counting Americans Overseas as Part of the Census Would Not Be Feasible.”
Legal Action:
There are at least two federal cases on this point: Com. of Mass. v. Mosbacher, 785 F. Supp. 230 – Dist. Court, D. Massachusetts 1992 (quoting “Other Americans Living Overseas—American citizens not employed by the federal government living overseas as of the census date have not been included in the apportionment counts for congressional seats”).
In 2001, a federal district court of three judges in Utah rejected the argument that the Census should count missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as it counts military members. Utah v. Evans, 143 F. Supp. 2d 1290 (D. Utah), aff’d, 122 S. Ct. 612 (2001).
This decision has a significant impact on Utah. If more than 11,000 Mormon missionaries from Utah living abroad had been included in the 2000 census, Utah would have gotten a fourth seat in the House of Representatives. Instead, an extra House seat went to North Carolina, with 18,360 overseas military and federal personnel counted in the Census.
On March 15, 2018, Utah’s Rep. Rob Bishop (R) introduced H.R. 5303 (115th): Full Count Act of 2018, which would have required the Census Bureau to ensure that all Americans living abroad are “fully and accurately” counted and attributed adequately to their states. Still, this bill died.
The Impact of Covid
See the difference!!! Before COVID, it read, “Utah told it can’t count missionaries in the census.” And, after COVID, it read, “Utah missionaries — often absent for census — will be counted after return home.”
New York Case:
The New York Magazine highlighted, “New York Will Lose a Seat in Congress Because 89 People Didn’t Fill Out the Census.” Had New York counted thousands of New Yorkers overseas, all 27 House seats would have been retained.
What to Do?
Please study “Do U.S. Expats Have Census Obligations?.”
To do better by people like me in time for the 2030 census, the Census Bureau should endorse and help pass legislation assuring the diaspora was counted.
My option would be to have Americans abroad declare on their census questionnaires where they slept two nights before they last left the United States — then have them counted at that address, but only for apportionment purposes.
But now there’s a decade to get things right and count another 9 million Americans.
"That’s a good question, we do not know!" answered Digital Nomad Norm Bour, of Orange County, California, who was hunkering down in Puerto Morelos, Mexico on Census Day, in response to my question, “Are you counted?”