WASHINGTON—Today, March 10, the League of Women Voters of the United States CEO Virginia Kase Solomón issued the following statement in reaction to the US Census Bureau report undercounting 18.8 million and underrepresentation of Black, Latino, and Indigenous people in the 2020 Census:

“It is a complete disservice to Americans to have an undercount of this magnitude, and especially in the Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities, the very communities that have the deepest growth across the country. As a country, we know that the census process is never perfect, but this margin of uncounted individuals will negatively impact communities’ access to vital services until the next census in 2030. As a longtime census partner, the League has highlighted the importance of participating in the 2020 Census and encouraged communities to participate in Get Out to Count activities. Notably, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the League participated in a census lawsuit to secure an extension to support counting as many residents as possible and to support the US Census Bureau’s need for an extended time to count individuals.   

We acknowledge the 2020 Census faced unprecedented and unforeseen obstacles due to the COVID-19 pandemic and was even more politicized with the interference from the previous administration in its attempt to add a citizenship question. While this inaccurate data is troubling, the government still has an opportunity to protect communities by increasing the budget to reflect the defective count in these communities. An accurate count from the US Census Bureau is critical to ensure that all communities are fairly represented in our democracy. We call on the US Census Bureau to work with Congress and the Biden administration to make the necessary adjustments to the federal budget to ensure that adequate public safety and infrastructure resources reach the very communities that we now know were not accounted for in the 2020 Census data.”