ThinkTankWeekly

The Census Bureau's Unorthodox Foray Into Voter Roll Investigations

CATO | 2026-08-28 | americas

Topics: Trade, United States

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English Summary

The Census Bureau released a highly unusual report alleging thousands of noncitizen votes in the 2020 election, an action considered a significant overreach outside its traditional mandate. Critics argue that the methodology is deeply flawed, citing reliance on commercial data and the absence of robust unique identifiers or transparency regarding error rates (false positives). The analysis suggests these alleged instances are statistically minuscule compared to total voter turnout. This incident highlights critical concerns regarding federal agencies' potential political misuse of statistical power and underscores the urgent need for stricter oversight of election data matching processes.

中文摘要

美國人口普查局發布了一份極為異常的報告,指控2020年選舉中存在數千票非公民投票,此舉被認為已超出其傳統職權範圍。批評人士指出,該方法論存在嚴重缺陷,理由包括依賴商業數據,且缺乏穩健的唯一識別碼或關於錯誤率(即誤報陽性)的透明度分析。分析顯示,這些所謂的案例與總投票人數相比在統計學上微不足道。此事件凸顯了聯邦機構可能將統計權力用於政治目的的重大擔憂,並強調對選舉數據比對流程進行更嚴格監督的迫切需求。

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