According to a hacked document, George Soros’s Open Society Foundation is funding key progressive groups with the stated goal of attempting to “influence appropriations for the (U.S.) Census Bureau” while pushing to change the methods in which racial categories are counted for the coming 2020 Census.
The 2020 Census is critical in determining the gain or loss of districts and the reapportionment of the numbers of House seats allotted to each state, otherwise known as redistricting. The Census could determine whether Democrats have a better chance at gaining control of the House next decade.
Soros’s group clearly understands the centrality of the 2020 Census and is apparently seeking to influence the outcome.
The information is revealed in a hacked December 2015 document titled, “Voting Rights Portfolio Review: Outcomes Summary” from the Open Society’s U.S. Programs branch.
The memo relates the review was initiated at the request of Open Society Foundations President Chris Stone to “examine the voting rights field and our related grantmaking.”
A section titled, “First grants to be made” identified four progressive groups to be funded to help influence the methodology of the 2020 Census: The National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO), the Leadership Conference, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) and Demos.
The memo was direct when it came to the purpose of the funding, specifically to influence 2020 Census counting procedures:
“Advocates have about a year and a half to influence appropriations for the Census Bureau, the redesign of racial categories on the 2020 Census instrument and policy regarding how to count persons who are incarcerated. Census topics must be presented to Congress in April 2017 with final questions by April 2018.”
NALEO’s Education Fund runs a program to “educate” policymakers about issues related to the 2020 Census and what the group calls the “persistent problem of the under-representation of Latinos.”
The group’s website states:
NALEO Educational Fund also educates policymakers about the need for sound and cost-effective planning for Census 2020. In addition, we work to strengthen the American Community Survey, which is the source of updated information on a wide range of population and housing characteristics. NALEO Educational Fund also advocates for policies to address the persistent problem of the under-representation of Latinos at all of the levels of the Census Bureau’s workforce, particularly in its senior and management leadership positions.
The Soros-funded Demos has long pushed for what it calls “fair redistricting” and an end to “prison gerrymandering” in the 2020 Census; in other words, counting incarcerated people in the census. At issue is whether to count incarcerated people as “residents” of prison locations.
A 2014 study examining voter trends of prisoners in three states found that in each state – New York, New Mexico and North Carolina – the majority of convicts voted for Democrats.
Even prior to the 2015 Open Society Foundation memo, the AAJC was attempting to influence the 2020 Census, joining with other groups to propose a set of 10 guidelines, titled “Redistricting Principles for a More Perfect Union,” to influence the census.
While much domestic news coverage is focused on this year’s presidential election, the 2020 Census could impact the future composition of the House of Representatives.
The Wall Street Journal previously focused on the 2020 Census, specifically, as the newspaper related it, on the issue of “which states will gain and lose House seats after the 2020 census.”
Continued the Journal blog post by Janet Adamy:
That pie of 435 seats gets recut every 10 years based on whether states swelled or shrank, and the number of House seats and presidential electoral votes for the states shift accordingly.
Election Data Services, a political consulting firm in Manassas, Va., tallied the rates of state population change from 2010 to 2015 and projected them forward to 2020. If those trends hold up, 15 states would gain or lose districts after the 2020 census.
The biggest gains would come to Texas, which is projected to clinch three more House seats, and Florida, a gainer of two seats. Arizona, North Carolina, Colorado and Oregon are all poised to grab one seat after 2020.
Nine states are projected to lose districts: Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
David Hawkings at Roll Call reported last year on the “important political occasion more than five years in the future” – the 2020 Census.
He continued:
It’s the next census, on April Fools’ Day 2020. Just a handful of the numbers will have a significant effect on the congressional power structure , most importantly whether Democrats gain a better shot in the next decade at controlling the House. And unlike the race for the White House, a fundamentally human drama with the potential to take more unpredictable turns than any previous such contest, the census story is all about mathematics and the basic plotline already is pretty easy to predict.
Aaron Klein is Breitbart’s Jerusalem bureau chief and senior investigative reporter. He is a New York Times bestselling author and hosts the popular weekend talk radio program, “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio.” Follow him on Twitter @AaronKleinShow. Follow him on Facebook.
With additional research by Joshua Klein.
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