USA Census data falsified! Would you trust Census reports again?

Would you blindly trust Census reports after reading this news? Maybe not! It is sad that vital data are being falsified by people for ulterior gains and reasons. The latest on this is the revelation that census takers were pressurized to falsify data to meet deadlines. Census 2020 completed its work two weeks back and now there is this disclosure that the data may be wrong due to faking of some household details. 

 Census takers reveal falsification of USA Census data 

 Two census takers revealed to AP News that their supervisors forced them to enter false data into the computer system about homes that they had yet not visited in order to meet deadlines. They wanted to close the cases as the time limit was ending. Besides, the supervisors told them that they had been asked to do so due to pressures from above; the regional office in New York. Maria Arce, one of the two census takers stated that she felt bad about doing this wrong act but was forced to obey her seniors. She felt extremely guilty and said: 

 

“It was all a sham. I felt terrible, terrible. I knew I was lying. I knew I was doing something wrong, but they said, ‘No, no, we are closing. We have to do this,’” 

 

USA Census falsified [Source: US Census]

By the time it was late or mid-September, Donald Trump administration's deadline of October end to finish the count was to be followed. 

More revelations from another census taker

It was a falsification of data of not only the households not visited but also of homes that were locked or no one was at home during the time of the visit. Pam Roberts, a census taker from Indiana revealed that Pam's supervisor pressurized Pam to enter made-up answers for houses that were locked and no one was there to answer the census takers' questions. Pam states that she did it for one day and filled in false information about more than 2 dozen households. But she could not cope up with the guilt. Hence the next day, she refused to be part of this wrong act. 

USA Census [Source: Census Gov]

As regards the false data entry of households, she also revealed that she had to do it sitting in her car outside the closed houses since the mobile device used for data entry could track the location where the entry was made. So it was a smartly falsified data that took all precautions to not getting caught. Pam said: 

 “That’s not what this is about. If it’s not truthful, how can we use it?” 

 The response from the Census Bureau 

 The Census Bureau was queried about these allegations. It did not give any details but said that it will look into the allegations. A coalition of local governments and advocacy groups have put in a lawsuit in a federal court regarding the inaccuracy of the 2020 Census. The Commerce Department oversees the work of the Census Bureau. They had made a decision that all census data collection should be speeded up to meet the deadline of October. The lawsuit filed in California is challenging this decision. The census data is used to count the number of congressional seats in each state. Hence this would end up being inaccurate too. Also, the minorities would not be included in the census and may remain undercounted and underrepresented. 

Donald Trump and his unconstitutional pressures [Source: Forbes]

 A Judge earlier had agreed that the count should be continued to completeness but the Trump administration appealed to the US Supreme Court on it. The Supreme Court sided with them and agreed that the count should finish by mid-October. An appellate court suspended that Judge's order and this matter is still in court. Trump had his own ulterior motive to speed up the count because he wanted to prove that there are illegal immigrants in the USA and they should be excluded from the counts. But three courts of California, New York, and Maryland have called his order as unlawful and unconstitutional. Falsification of data carries a fine of $ 2000 and a jail term of 5 years.