LWVUS Welcomes Director Santos to the Census Bureau 

The League reached out to welcome Director Santos who was confirmed to the Census Bureau earlier this year. Census work is incredibly important to our democracy. The League looks forward to working with the Bureau to improve the Census process including to end prison gerrymandering, ensuring accurate counting, creating more accessible digital census options, and collecting data that is inclusive of all communities. 

June 28, 2022

Director Robert Santos
U.S. Census Bureau
4600 Silver Hill Road
Washington, DC 20233

Dear Director Santos:

The League of Women Voters of the United States(LWVUS)would like to offer a warm welcome to you asyou join the Census Bureau and to offer our supportto your agency.

The League is a century-seasoned, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization committed to protecting every person’s freedom to vote. We are a grassroots group comprised of more than 500,000 members and supporters across 750+ local and state Leagues nationwide. The League focuses on advocacy, education, litigation, and organizing to achieve our mission to empower voters and defend democracy.

The League’s comprehensivework on the 2020 Census included: (1) Education; (2) Get Out to Count activities, and (3) Watchdog reporting. In the months leading up to Census Day, Leagues around the country went into communities sharing information and resources about how to participate and the importance of the census as a means to capture the US population, better understand our communities, and apportion the population for fair representation. On Census Day, the League workedin a coalition to help get every resident counted, workedon Complete Count Committees, and a variety of other ways to share out information about low-reporting areas, and communicate where additional counting support wasneeded.

LWVUS also took steps to ensure thatCongress is doing its part to supportthe success of the census. We have supported and will continue to supportfull fundingof the US Census Bureau’s budget. At the height of the pandemic in 2020, we joined calls for added funding for the census to respond to the challenges created by COVID-19.

The League is deeply committed to ensuring the success of future decennial census processes and the ongoing efforts of the US Census Bureau. The Census Bureau isdoing critical work to ensure counting of residents, which in turn supports the creation offair districtsand supports federal allocation of support to communities around the country. As we seek to build a country that worksfor all of us, understanding the people who make up our communities is integral to forming a representative democracy.

The League was also heavily involved in the redistricting process by empowering people to get involved in the creation of fair districts.The League of Women Voters worked through our People Powered Fair Maps campaign following the 2020 Census to engage communities around the country in the redistricting process. We are now gearing up for the 2030 Census by growing our organizing on the ground in communities and our educational campaign to make sure that everyone is counted.

We have worked with the Census Bureau over the years to continue to improve the census process. Our priorities remain strong to end prison gerrymandering, ensure accurate counting, create more accessibledigital census options, and collect data that is inclusive of all communities-including revising the standards for federal data on race and ethnicity. LWVUS hopes to continue to be a resource to the Census Bureau and would be honored to support your work.

Please do not hesitate to contact our staff via Kristen Kern, Federal Policy and Advocacy Manager at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Virginia Kase SolomónCEO