Counting every person is supposed to mean actually counting them. But according to a new lawsuit spearheaded by America First Legal (AFL), the 2020 Census relied less on knocking on doors and more on guesswork and estimates.
In an amended complaint filed in federal court recently, AFL argues the U.S. Census Bureau dramatically expanded its use of “imputation” – a statistical method that plugs in missing data using other people’s information. Translation: if no one answered the door, someone else’s details might stand in. But the AFL contends that this led to inaccurate results.
/1🚨LITIGATION UPDATE — AFL has filed an amended complaint challenging the U.S. Census Bureau’s unlawful use of statistical methods in the 2020 Census.
The Constitution demands a complete and accurate Census.
The American people deserve nothing less. pic.twitter.com/Fyxsjkf70F [1]
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) February 18, 2026 [2]
By the Bureau’s own admission, about 10.9 million people were imputed in 2020. 10.9 million! That’s nearly double the number in 2010. Some of that counting was also undercounting – in fact a whopping undercounting of 760,000 people in red-state Florida (great job Democrats!)
The AFL is asking a three-judge panel to declare the 2020 apportionment data unlawful and order new numbers produced with tighter limits on statistical methods so that “enumeration” doesn’t mean “best guess.”
AFL claims that instead of undertaking every effort available to conduct an actual enumeration, the Bureau leaned on statistical substitutes during COVID disruptions. Yes, COVID again. Because in Washington, “the pandemic made us do it” has become the all-purpose explanation for just about every bureaucratic blunder of the past six years.
Emily Percival, Senior Counsel for AFL said in their press release, “COVID-19 did not shut down the government’s constitutional duty to conduct an accurate count of the American people. Instead of exhausting every avenue for actual enumeration, the Census Bureau fell back on statistical substitutes. These actions violated the Census Bureau’s constitutional responsibilities and diluted American voices.”
The AFL lawsuit contends this “imputation” practice violated the Constitution’s Enumeration Clause and skewed congressional apportionment and redistricting – just like what happened when they counted all of the illegal aliens so Democrats could get more representation in Congress.
There’s also a related lawsuit [3] about that going on with Missouri’s Attorney General Catherine Hanaway filing a federal lawsuit challenging how the U.S. Census Bureau counts people for congressional apportionment, arguing that including undocumented immigrants and temporary visa holders in the census dilutes the political representation of U.S. citizens and unfairly benefits states with larger immigrant populations. The suit demands that the government redo the 2020 census and apportionment without counting those noncitizens and stop including them in the 2030 census count.
Between AFL’s challenge to statistical “imputation” and Missouri’s lawsuit over counting noncitizens, the 2020 Census is back under the microscope from two different angles – how people were counted and who should have been counted in the first place. With congressional seats, federal dollars and political leverage tied to those numbers, the courts could end up deciding whether the last census was a faithful headcount or a creative accounting exercise. Either way, the battle over the 2020 tally – and how 2030 will be handled – is just getting started.