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The appeal faces significant legal hurdles, experts say.<\/p>\n
Lawsuit challenges long-used methodology<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s group originally filed the lawsuit <\/a>last year on behalf of Florida College Republican groups. It was eventually joined by Byron Donalds, a Republican candidate for Florida governor.<\/p>\n The suit claims an improper census count cost the GOP an additional House seat and vote in the Electoral College. The state now has 28 House districts and 30 electoral votes.<\/p>\n The case centers on a part of the census process known as imputation \u2014 a statistical method used to fill in gaps, such as when people don\u2019t fill out forms or give incomplete information.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a scientifically based and evidence-based method for filling in missing data when having a full set of data would be more accurate than publishing data with a lot of missing information,\u201d Terri Ann Lowenthal, a consultant on census issues, told Straight Arrow.<\/p>\n Essentially, it\u2019s a way to make sure people still get counted even if they don\u2019t participate in the census.<\/p>\n \u201cIf the Census Bureau is sure that there\u2019s a household at a certain address, and the address just doesn\u2019t respond, then the bureau has administrative data about that household, then they impute that household into the overall tabulation,\u201d Jan Vink, a demographer and professor at Cornell University, told Straight Arrow. \u201cSo, they still account for the household, even if the household didn\u2019t respond themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n The process has been used, in some form, since<\/a> 1890. It was developed by Herman Hollerith, who used<\/a> data and mechanical coding to help speed up the census, which at the time took years to complete. Hollerith went on to found the Tabulating Machine Company, now known as IBM.<\/p>\n \u201cHe developed a system using coach cards, which were used for every home and household in the country to indicate if nobody responded to the knock on the door,\u201d Lowenthal said. \u201cBut if it was clear that somebody lived there, the characteristics of a nearby household would be used as a replacement to fill out the count.\u201d<\/p>\n The plaintiffs in this lawsuit argue that the Census Bureau relied too heavily on imputation and want the courts to rule the data was not lawfully produced.<\/p>\n Seeking Supreme Court intervention<\/p>\n A three-judge panel dismissed the original version of the lawsuit, essentially saying the plaintiffs waited too long after the census to file.<\/p>\n An amendment complaint claimed the Census Bureau cut corners in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But this week, the judges once again dismissed the suit, this time with prejudice \u2014 meaning it cannot be refiled.<\/p>\n \u201cThe arguments that they\u2019re making are really more political ones than substantive,\u201d Jeffrey Wice, a professor at New York Law School, told Straight Arrow.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, the plaintiffs are trying to take the case directly to the Supreme Court \u2014 a process that comes with its own challenges.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first hurdle they\u2019re going to face is whether they have standing to go directly to the Supreme Court, without going through the federal appellate court first,\u201d Wice said.<\/p>\n