DENVER -- Colorado's faith community is stepping up efforts to ensure historically undercounted racial and ethnic minority Coloradans participate in the 2020 census.

Auxiliary Bishop Jorge Rodriguez with the Catholic Archdiocese of Denver said all people, regardless of race, religion or immigration status, are made in God's image and deserve to be counted. He sees participation as a moral obligation because of the impact it will have on programs families rely on.

"This is what is at the heart of the census," Rodiguez said. "It's not about numbers, it's about how these numbers will help us to put in place programs according to those numbers, according to those families and children."

Longstanding - and largely substantiated - distrust of government remains one of the biggest barriers for participation among communities of color, and faith leaders are reminding residents that all personal information collected in the census is confidential and cannot be shared with other government agencies.

Rabbi Salomon Gruenwald with the Hebrew Educational Alliance said because every human being is of immeasurable worth, all U.S. residents are worthy of being seen. When people fill out the census form, they are saying, "we are here, we are part of 'we the people.'"

"And every 10 years our country gets together to count every single person," Gruenwald said. "It's a mandate to count every person, and it also teaches a civics lesson that every person here counts, everybody has something to contribute."

This month, the U.S. Census Bureau will send an invitation by mail to every household. Responding should take about ten minutes to complete online, on paper to return by mail, or by telephone. Colorado receives $13 billion each year in federal funding based on census numbers, for nutrition programs, education, health care, programs for children, veterans, seniors, and more.

Census information is available in English here, or in Spanish here.


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HARRISBURG, Pa. - A new Redistricting Advisory Council announced last week by Gov. Tom Wolf's office will focus on reducing gerrymandering as new voting-district maps are redrawn.

The council is made up of six academics and political experts from throughout the state, each with knowledge of redistricting. They will provide recommendations to the governor when he reviews the new congressional-district maps approved by the state Legislature later this year.

Khalif Ali, executive director of Common Cause Pennsylvania, said he hopes the new council ensures the people of the Commonwealth come first.

"Drawing maps is a process that requires some expertise," said Ali. "I don't think that the science and logic of drawing maps should supersede the desires and wishes of the citizens of Pennsylvania, as long as they're within reason."

The governor's office also announced a new website where Pennsylvanians can offer feedback on the congressional redistricting process, submit their own proposed maps, and outline communities of interest.

PA's population grew by only 2.4% in the last decade, and so the state will lose a U.S. House seat.

Pennsylvania's Legislative Reapportionment Commission, which helps create the state House and Senate district maps, is having an additional public comment hearing tomorrow in Harrisburg, that will be livestreamed.

Maria Gutierrez, director of membership of the Latino grassroots organization CASA, said these hearings give people a chance to share why they think it's important to keep communities together.

"Our communities want to express that they want not to be divided," said Gutierrez. "They want to be count[ed] as part of a great community, and not to be divided in sections so their political power be diminished."

The House State Government Committee has also rescheduled its three redistricting hearings, to be held in October instead of this month, to accommodate state lawmakers' early return to the Capitol.

Residents who want to provide in-person testimony at those hearings can sign up online, at 'paredistricting.com' by October 13.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Researchers, nonprofits, and public-policy advocates continue to analyze census data released late this summer.

An increase in diversity was a big theme for Minnesota's numbers, prompting more discussion about meeting the needs of racial groups representing the growth. Since 2010, 85 of Minnesota's 87 counties saw growth in their Hispanic and Latino populations, while 72 recorded an increase in their Black populations.

Allison Liuzzi, project director for Minnesota Compass, a social indicators project, said in some cases, the gains were relatively small, but she said the overall changes are significant because Minnesota is playing catch-up to many other parts of the U.S.

"The trend is taking hold across the state such that we're seeing our state become much more like other more racially and ethnically diverse states across the nation," Liuzzi reported.

She argued a more diverse population can help stabilize a county's workforce as employers face difficulty in filling positions. She suggested the trends should prompt the education system to ensure schools are more culturally responsive to students from different racial backgrounds.

Detailed age estimates were not included in the latest release, but Liuzzi noted Minnesota is still projected to see more older adults, resulting in greater infrastructure needs.

Mike Dean, executive director of LeadMN, an association for community college students, said it received support from the Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation to help with census outreach ahead of last year's count.

Dean pointed out the work was vital, as Minnesota hung on to all of its congressional seats by a thin margin.

"And if not, that just means less of a voice in D.C. and particularly, right now, with so much conversation going on around COVID relief, how do we improve the economy?" Dean remarked.

Dean emphasized their outreach was especially geared toward elevating BIPOC voices at the community college level as the census took shape. He feels maintaining representation in Congress could help those students carve out a better future for themselves.

"We all know that really, higher education is a pathway to having a strong middle class," Dean contended. "And, you know, having a more diverse community is really critical with this that we invest in higher education."

Additional 2020 census data is expected next year. This fall, the Census Bureau is expected to release its latest American Community Survey estimates, which will give a better reflection of how populations were impacted by the pandemic.

PORTLAND, Ore. - Local prison populations can affect how voting districts will be drawn.

Eleven states, including Washington, have reconsidered where incarcerated people are counted - where they are from, not where they are serving time. However, Oregon is not one of them. The issue has become more pressing as redistricting goes into full swing.

Wanda Bertram, communication strategist at the Prison Policy Initiative, described how prison gerrymandering create unequal representation.

"If I am in one district that's close to the prison, and you're in another district that's across town and you don't live close to the prison, I'm going to end up with, relatively speaking, more access to political representation than you do," she said, "because the actual size of my district has been 'padded' by incarcerated people."

In Washington state, people in prison will be counted as residents of their home address. Bertram said this puts political power back into these communities, which especially is important for areas over-represented in prisons. She noted that Oregon has introduced several measures, including in 2019, that would end so-called "prison gerrymandering" - but none has passed.

The Prison Policy Initiative believes it would be ideal if the Census Bureau changed its policy to count incarcerated people as residents of the communities they call home. Bertram noted that it's also too late for states such as Oregon to end prison gerrymandering, since the legislative session already is over for the year.

"We're shifting our focus to urge cities and counties heavily impacted by prison gerrymandering to take action at the local level," she said, "because counties and cities in most states have the ability to decide to not count incarcerated people when they redistrict."

In the 2010 census, 28% of Pendleton's population and 12% of Salem's were made up of incarcerated people. Pendleton Mayor John Turner said by email that no one in the community has expressed concern about this issue. The Prison Policy Initiative also is asking states to "spread out" their prison population so it isn't overrepresented in certain communities. The Legislative Policy and Research Office in Oregon said the state can't do this because the Legislature didn't pass a measure allowing it.


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