Everyday Erinyes #142

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

On this last Saturday before the election, I don’t want to talk about the election. I assume that everyone who reads here has already done everything they need to do to prepare for it, including in some cases already voted. Instead, I want to talk about the 2020 Census. Win or lose, that will be a huge post-election project for us, and possibly the biggest project.

We have already been looking at the fact that the infamous Wilbur Ross, instigated and/or supported by Trump, wants to add a citizenship question to the Census, and there is a lawsuit to stop that. I’ve signed more than one petition to stop the question, and I expect others have too.

A stay in the trial, which starts Monday, was requested by the Trump administration of the Supreme Court, and yesterday the news came out that no such stay will be granted. Since Kavanazi was not present when the arguments were heard, I presume that he was not permitted to vote (although with this regime you never know.) Three justices, Alito, Thomas, and Gorsuch, stated that they “would have granted the requested stay,” but no justice is required to go on record how they “would have” voted, and no other did. Partly because they used that verbiage rather than using the word “dissent,” I am guessing that the vote was 4-4. A tie vote results in no change, which means no stay, so the case starts Monday as originally scheduled. Good. Let us hope that the Courts rule wisely, and don’t get overruled.

Meanwhile, the people who actually do the work at the Census Bureau (which still includes many career civil servants who actually know what they are doing) are working on drumming up support and brainstorming on how best to deal with some perennial and some topical issues in the count:

On a scorching day in early August, about 30 people gathered at the Univision Network’s flagship TV station in Los Angeles from across California to talk about the challenges of making sure everyone is counted in the 2020 Census….

At the L.A. event, there were representatives from major advocacy groups, from the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials to the League of United Latin American Citizens, along with representatives from Univision affiliates in California….

[P]articipants divided into teams to focus on four challenges and propose solutions for:

Amplifying outreach and engagement in rural communities.
Educating immigrant families with limited English language proficiency.
Creating effective digital communications campaigns.
Addressing the undercount of children 0 to 5 years old.

Nice to know they are on this, and trying. Also nice to know they are at least trying to keep raw data safe and secure, so that it is released in ways which are statistically significant only. And also providing some tools to protect our own information.

While our dedicated cybersecurity experts work continuously to protect the data we collect and store in our system, we also know that you have a role to play to protect your information on your personal devices and internet connections.

To ensure your data remains protected at all times, we encourage you to visit:

Our fraudulent activity and scams page that’s dedicated to providing you tips to avoid becoming a victim of cyberattacks.
The Department of Homeland Security’s STOP. THINK. CONNECT. campaign that’s dedicated to providing you cybersecurity best practices.

We know the accuracy of our statistics depends on the accuracy of the data we collect. If you suspect “phishing” or other scams, contact the Census Bureau’s regional office for your state or the Census Bureau’s National Processing Center immediately for verification and further instructions.

Besides career civil servants, the Census also hires temporary employees for each census. Some work full time in offices in population hubs – even very small ones – as my mother did in 1980. Others work part time flexible hours to follow up on information missing from the forms, as I did in 1980. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Prior to the 2010 census, the Bureau accepted 3.9 million applications, and actually hired hundreds of thousands of people. I know a lot of Politics Plus readers are older, and some of us are at least partially disabled. But for anyone who is physically up to it, frankly, I can’t think of anyone I would trust more to work honestly and accurately than Politics Plus readers. They are not yet taking applications, but they are setting up an email list to notify people when and how to apply.

The fact is, every American has a part to play in every census. The phrase “Stand up and be counted” was never so appropriate. But you don’t have to stop at being counted – you can actually get involved in the counting.

QQ Here are five ways you can get involved:

1. Sign up for updates on new resources and opportunities to partner with the U.S. Census Bureau.
2. Follow @uscensusbureau and spread the word about how the census is easy, safe and important by sharing our news, data products, fact sheets and infographics.
3. Host a workshop to develop solutions to 2020 Census challenges in your community and generate commitments to tackle them.

4. Form or participate in a State Complete Count Commission or a Complete Count Committee to encourage participation in your community.
5. Participate in The Opportunity Project to use open data — data that can be freely used and distributed by anyone — to create digital tools that address our greatest challenges through innovative, collaborative solutions. QQ

I already mentioned that the Census will be a big priority, win or lose. I am hoping for big wins, but I am expecting to win some and lose some. And the fewer we win, the more the Census will be almost the only thing we can do to make a real difference. The Furies can’t do everything, you know. But I do hope Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone will help motivate some of us – after we catch our breath from the election – to get involved.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 HERE.