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Comment by klyrs | Hacker News Reader

A little hard to square this with the rushed and constrained nature of the 2020 census. It was politicized and tied up in court, which delayed the beginning. Covid made it more difficult to properly run the census. Undocumented immigrants faced a FUD campaign, and were intimidated against participation. Then, the deadline to finish was was again politicized, tied up in court, extended, retracted. Was the 2020 census accurate enough to draw this conclusion?

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It seems to me like the census is the wrong tool for the job described in the headline. I understand that a census makes sense for allocating seats, since it’s easy for citizens to understand and trust. Filling out the census is almost a political act. And indeed most of the article is about apportioning of reps. But if I want to know how many people there are, surely there are more accurate approaches?

While your arguments make sense, is there any evidence to suggest that it was compromised?

The thesis of my so-called argument is that I'm skeptical (that itself is rather irrefutable, but I did list reasons for my skepticism); I've yet to see comprehensive analysis of the census accuracy, and until I do, I'll continue to treat any conclusions drawn from the census with skepticism

I think your skepticism is misplaced. This was the most secure census in history.

What do you mean by "secure?" I said I'm skeptical that it was accurate. And willing to change my mind, if you've got a link to comprehensive analysis showing that it's accurate and didn't, say, systematically undercount undocumented immigrants.

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