A 2020 file photo of an envelope containing a 2020 census letter. The COVID-19 pandemic and lawsuits around the every-ten-years population count is delaying the release of census results this year, creating challenges for Oregon lawmakers.
Drawing new legislative and congressional districts every 10 years is among the Legislature s key duties. This year it might miss its chance.
Oregon lawmakers are scrambling to retain control over how legislative and congressional districts are redrawn this year after the U.S. Census Bureau revealed it could not provide data in time to meet the state’s deadlines.
The once-a-decade process of drawing new district maps happens after the completion of each new census, and is a significant power for the state Legislature. It helps dictate which political party steers Oregon for the next 10 years.
December 16, 2020 7:00 a.m.
When Utah lawmakers had the chance to kick the tires on a new privacy program the Census Bureau is planning for the 2020 data, what they found was troubling.
A test in February on a version of the program that was run on 2010 census numbers produced a major distortion of what cities and towns in rural Utah look like. The populations in the tiny towns of Tabiona and Alton were shrunk to less than half their actual sizes. Twenty cities overall saw 20 percent or more of their inhabitants wiped away, and the state incurred a net population loss of nearly 15,000. The smallest town in Utah, the former mining town of Scofield, saw its inhabitants double from 24 to 52.