The Republican National Committee is sending documents labeled “2020 Congressional District Census” to people in California and across the country just weeks before the start of the official nationwide count of the country’s population.
Critics say the misleading mailers — in envelopes labeled “Do Not Destroy. Official Document” and including a lengthy questionnaire on blue-tinted paper similar to the type used by the real census — are designed to confuse people and possibly lower the response rate when the count begins in mid-March.
LA Times
Because they can't win if they don't cheat.
They should be fined. Big.
The top of the mailer states it is “commissioned by the Republican Party.” In smaller print on the second page, below a request for donations, is a notice that it is paid for by the Republican National Committee. Included in the envelope is a four-page letter from National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel asking for donations to the party and a promise to support Trump in 2020.
Unlike the official census form, the RNC survey is largely made up of political questions, such as whether the respondent supports using military force against Iran, thinks race relations in the country are getting worse and believes “political correctness” has gotten out of hand.
[...]
With billions of dollars in federal funding on the line and a chance that California could lose a seat in Congress based on the census results, critics worry some residents will fill out the mock census document and ignore or throw away the real one.
That's the plan, I'm sure.
Daniel Wessel, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee, called the RNC mailer “intentionally deceptive” and “reprehensible.” Democrats also use surveys, but he said they do not attempt to disguise them as official government documents.
The Republican National Committee referred questions about the mailer to the Trump reelection campaign.
Which certainly suggests that's who's responsible for it, and the RNC is just footing the bill.
Trump campaign spokeswoman Samantha Zager noted that the documents are marked as coming from the Republican National Committee. She would not discuss other details, including how many mailers were sent, where they were sent and why the committee called it a “census.”
It’s not the first time that the Trump administration has been accused of trying to suppress census response rates. The Supreme Court last year blocked the Commerce Department from adding a citizenship question to the census, which experts said would have likely led to an undercount in states such as California that have large immigrant populations.
[...]
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Irvine) said many of the people who have contacted her office said they first heard about the mailer from their confused elderly parents who were unsure if the document was the official census. Similar stories are popping up across the country, with particular concern for residents who don’t speak English fluently or who are unfamiliar with government documents.
[...]
The RNC sent similar mailers ahead of the 2010 census. After that, Congress passed the Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act, sponsored by Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.). The law bars non-government groups from sending solicitations with the word “census” on the envelope through U.S. mail.
The most recent RNC mailer does not use the word census on the envelope, though it is used repeatedly on the mailer itself.
Despicable. I hope 2020 sees Republicans lose from the top of the ticket to the bottom.
The official 2020 census begins in mid-March and responses can be submitted through the mail or online. The government asks for biographical information, including who lives in the home, their age and race. It does not ask questions about politics or ask for money.
Many states, including California, are spending millions of dollars to ensure an accurate count in the decennial census, the results of which are used over the next 10 years to determine how many representatives a state gets in Congress and how much money states and cities receive. Local governments use the data to decide where schools and fire stations should be built.
