The Census Bureau says that its count will continue through Oct. 31, yielding after a back-and-forth battle with a federal judge in California.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled that the count must continue, ordering that the schedule the Census Bureau’s attempt to wrap up enumeration was inoperative due to the coronavirus pandemic, and counting should extend until the end of October.
A release from the Bureau said that it had messaged employees to say the count will go on. As a result of court orders, the October 5, 2020 target date is not operative, and data collection operations will continue through October 31.
The shortened timeline worried experts both inside and outside the agency, who feared that a politically motivated acceleration could lead to a flawed count that determines billions of dollars of funding and how states are represented in the House of Representatives.
