December 7, 2020

Neither Free Nor Fair? podcast Sara Curran on the Census: Counting Folks & Counting Votes

Guest: Sara Curran, Professor of International Studies at the Jackson School of International Studies, Professor of Sociology, & Director of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology at the University of Washington.

Sara Curran joins James for this episode “Census: Counting Folks & Counting Votes.” They discuss what a census is and its importance to elections and democracy; why the Framers wrote the census into the Constitution; how censuses works in the US and other countries (including Malaysia, Kenya, and Myanmar); why censuses often become so politicized; and the importance of counting people to respond to the Covid crisis.

Other related work mentioned in the podcast and some additional links:

A very helpful website about the Census, provided by an independent set of private/public partners, working to ensure high quality census data products.

Sara’s recent appearance on KUOW (local NPR) discussing challenges to the Census.

In October, Sara joined the University of Washington’s Constitution Read Aloud event (found on YouTube), where she describes how and why the Census is enshrined in the U.S. Constitution.

Earlier in the fall, Sara joined ACLU Washington Director Michele Storms and Professor of Law Lisa Marshall Manheim on a panel hosted by UW’s Existing with Covid-19 Season 2 which focused on how COVID-19 challenges both election systems and the census (recording found on YouTube).

Sara’s opinion in The Seattle Times about the risks the addition of a question on citizenship would pose for the Census. In 2019, the US Supreme Court ruled against the addition of a citizenship question and, ultimately, the Trump administration dropped its various attempts to add a question.

You can find this episode on our “Neither Free Nor Fair?” series on Anchor, or directly on iTunes, Spotify, Breaker, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Radio Public, or on Soundcloud. You can also find us by opening your podcast app and searching “Neither Free Nor Fair?” Please subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review!

https://soundcloud.com/political-economy-forum-at-university-of-washington/sara-curran-census-counting-folks-counting-votes?in=political-economy-forum-at-university-of-washington/sets/neither-free-nor-fair