Texts: US Census Manager Told Counters to Use Fake Answers

The Associated Press has obtained text messages a U.S. Census Bureau supervisor in Alabama sent to workers telling them how to fake counts of households by entering misleading data. The texts from October say the effort’s goal was to close the census count in cases where they couldn’t tell who lived in a household after two visits.

Workers were told to close cases after two failed visits at the home, plus two more with neighbors or landlords. A census worker provided the texts to the AP on condition of anonymity to protect her privacy. The Census Bureau says it’s investigating and hasn’t identified any data irregularities.

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