Challenges

After every census, some communities find themselves surprised and dissatisfied with the count. Known as the Census Question Resolution Program (CQR), this program allows governmental units to challenge the census based on boundary disputes or other geographic displacement.

The CQR doesn’t allow for challenges directly to the population count and no additional data is collected as part of the CQR program. Three criteria form the essential core of this program:

  1. Boundary corrections—that is, correcting faulty jurisdictional boundaries.
  2. Geocoding corrections—corrections within a jurisdiction. For example, if a nursing home was incorrectly tabulated on one side of town when it actually belongs on the other side. This won’t result in a different count for the town.
  3. Coverage corrections— specific housing units or group quarters that were identified during the Census 2010 process but were erroneously included or excluded due to processing errors; such corrections could be additions or deletions. The bottom line—no recount.

Essentially, the count will be shifted within a jurisdiction (criteria 2), between jurisdictions (criteria 1), or by combing through the data collected through a variety of processes to identify wrongly included or excluded housing units or group quarters (criteria 3). Local governments are required to provide specific evidence with maps and address lists.