[xhkkffbf]

The 2020 Census had a number of issues and many of them ended up giving the Democrats more seats in the House than they should have. Oh, and the Census results were due at the White House in December 2016, but somehow they didn't reach the WH until January 21, 2017.

Was Differential Privacy specifically involved? I don't think so, but I think it's being lumped into the mix and being blamed for the other issues.

[censusnerd]

No disclosure avoidance was applied to the state-level population counts used for congressional apportionment (i.e. how house seats are divvied up). There are plenty of valid critiques of the 2020 Census disclosure avoidance systems, but the Rs who claim that DP was used to manipulate state population counts to give Democrats more seats either have no idea what they're talking about or are being malicious.

Also... the first census results typically come out in the same year, e.g. December 2020, not 2016? More detailed demographer data take a bit longer. COVID was really the cause for delayed releases.

[xhkkffbf]

The Rs are just confused. The manipulation happened but they didn't need DP to do it.

As I said, it wasn't the disclosure avoidance that generated the most discrepancies. It was other forms of adjustments.

[stymaar]

> The 2020 Census had a number of issues and many of them ended up giving the Democrats more seats in the House than they should have.

Do you have any source on that. For a census issue to have an actual impact in an election outcome, it must either be:

- a lucky issue (flipping a very close race from one side to the other)

- a very big issue

Both can happen occasionally, but I have a hard time imagining “many of them” occurring in the same election.

[xhkkffbf]

I believe a few states would have fewer seats in Congress if it weren't for some last minute adjustments. It wasn't the actual election. It was the allocation of seats to each state that had the biggest effect.