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Graphic: Which States Gained Or Lost Electoral College Votes?

Texas has gained two more votes in Congress and the Electoral College for the next decade, while Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon each gained one seat, based on the first set of results from the 2020 census released Monday. The seven states losing one vote each are California, Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. 

State keeps all 8 U.S. House seats, barely

The federal statistical agency's acting director, Ron Jarmin, reported the 

. The long-awaited announcement has reset the balance of power for the next decade in 

each state's share of votes is tied to its census numbers

Graphic: What Does The New Electoral College Map Look Like?

The scramble for the last of the 435 seats for voting members in the House was remarkably close. Minnesota received the final assignment, Karen Battle, chief of the bureau's population division, said during the press conference.

"If New York had had 89 more people, they would have received one more seat," Battle added. 

Graphic: How Would The New Electoral College Have Changed The 2020 Presidential Election?

The results had been held up for months due to delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic and 

, these state population numbers were due by the end of 2020. But 

the bureau has been warning since last April

 that census results would be delivered later than originally planned. 

 recently renewed a push in Congress to formally extend legal reporting deadlines for the 2020 count. 

Last year's tally was the country's 24th census — a once-a-decade tradition required by the Constitution since 1790 — and it is the ninth count for which the U.S. government has attempted to include

in the numbers used for reapportioning seats in Congress. Before the 1940 census, the phrase "excluding Indians not taxed" in the Constitution 

Why did it take so long to get these census results?

COVID-19 forced the agency to postpone in-person counting for months, and the bureau's door knockers also had to contend with hurricanes and wildfires in some parts of the country. As 

, the census was further disrupted last July when the Trump administration decided to cut short the schedule for gathering census responses and running quality checks on the collected data. Extra time was needed, the bureau says, to sort through 

a high volume of duplicate and incomplete responses

Were people who died from COVID-19 last year counted in the census?

The census was intended to be a snapshot of the country's population as of Census Day (April 1, 2020), so it was not supposed to count U.S. residents who died before that date, according to 

. People who died on or after April 1 last year should have been counted. 

Is there information about race, ethnicity, age and sex, as well as population numbers for counties, cities, towns and other smaller areas, in these census results?

No, this information will be released with the second set of 2020 census results. This more detailed demographic information is needed for the redrawing of voting districts. It's also used to guide the distribution of 

 in federal money for Medicare, Medicaid, education and other public services for local communities. 

When will that demographic data be released?

The bureau plans to start releasing this information 

. New redistricting data were due to the state by the end of March. But the bureau says it is behind schedule on running quality checks after the Trump administration pressured it to prioritize the new state numbers that President Donald Trump 

The timing may change, however, depending on how two lawsuits turn out. Alabama and Ohio are asking the federal courts to force the bureau to put out this data by the end of July so that they can meet their state redistricting deadlines. 

 is also trying to stop the bureau from adopting a new technique, known as differential privacy, for keeping personal information in anonymized census data confidential. If Alabama wins, the data's release would be delayed by "multiple months" past August, the agency's chief scientist said in

It will be difficult to say for certain immediately. 

 the agency has not found anything in the data suggesting the census is not "fit for its constitutional and statutory purposes."

But no U.S. census has been perfect. The pandemic and Trump officials' last-minute changes to the schedule have heightened 

concerns about how well certain groups were counted

 who are less likely to participate in the census unless they receive in-person visits from door knockers. The Trump administration's 

 may also have further discouraged households with immigrants and people of color from getting counted. 

For the first time, the bureau is releasing quality metrics at the national and state levels on the same day it puts out the first numbers. But census experts say metrics at a more detailed level are needed because the quality of the count can vary greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. 

Researchers with the American Statistical Association

 are conducting an independent audit of the count's quality, and they are 

set to release their first report in June

. The Census Bureau is conducting its Post-Enumeration Survey to estimate how many people may have been missed, as well as rates of overcounting and undercounting among racial and ethnic groups. Those results are not expected to start rolling out until 

 if state population numbers from a do-over can be used to redistribute seats in the House of Representatives — the count's main purpose as outlined by the Constitution. 

 does allow for a "mid-decade census" in 2025, but the results can't be used for reapportioning the House. There's also a question about money: Would Congress be willing to fund another head count shortly after what's estimated to be the most costly census in U.S. history at $15.6 billion?

What happens next to the first census results?

These state population counts and the new assignment of House seats are part of 

 involving the commerce secretary overseeing the bureau, the president and Congress. Ultimately, the numbers are certified by 

, who is then charged with officially reporting them to the states. 

Some states that have lost seats may sue the Biden administration to challenge how the House was reapportioned, and that may change some states' new number of congressional districts before next year's midterm elections. The new Electoral College map, with votes based on each state's latest share of seats in Congress, goes into effect beginning with the 2024 presidential race. 

Politics and Government News

Hansi Lo Wang

Author

The Census Bureau is set to announce state population counts from its 2020 tally at a 2 p.m. CT press conference. The counts are used to determine representation in Congress and the Electoral College.

Here's how the first 2020 Census results changed Electoral College, House seats

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