TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida Attorney General James Usmayer has filed a petition with the U.S. Census Bureau asking for changes to the way the federal government conducts population counts used to determine congressional representation.
The move follows the release of new data showing that Florida and other Republican-leaning states were undercounted and many Democratic-leaning states were overcounted in the 2020 U.S. Census.
Usmayer said in a statement that the census process should focus on accurately representing the American people, saying population totals directly affect how political power and federal resources are distributed.
“How we count our population has a direct impact on how political power is distributed across the United States. To ensure that Floridians are fairly represented, Florida should have an accurate population count,” Usmayer said.
According to the petition, the alleged undercount could have cost Florida at least one seat and reduced federal funding for the state. At the same time, the filing argues that other states retain representation rights that they otherwise would have lost.
Usmayer’s petition focuses on how the Census Bureau counts residents, especially individuals who are not U.S. citizens. The current method counts everyone living in the United States at the time of the census, regardless of citizenship or immigration status.
The attorney general argues that this approach inflates the population totals of states with large non-citizen populations and reduces representation in states like Florida.
The petition asks the Census Bureau to make several changes, including:
Collect data on citizenship and immigration status; Exclude non-citizens and temporary residents from apportionment counts; Exclude children of non-citizens from those counts; End the use of statistical methods to adjust population estimates.
Census apportionment data determines how seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are distributed to states and how billions of dollars in federal funds are distributed.
The Census Bureau has not yet formally responded to the petition. Previous efforts to include a citizenship question in the census are being challenged in federal court, so any changes to how the census is conducted will likely face legal and political challenges.
The issue is expected to reignite debate across the United States over how to measure population and determine representation.
