The federal government is proposing major changes to the 2030 U.S. Census, including removing race and ethnicity questions, changing who counts toward representation in Congress, and revising the rules for determining where people live.
These proposals raise serious concerns about civil rights, voting representation, federal funding, and whether communities will be accurately counted.
For Voting Access For All Coalition (VAAC), the proposed residence rules also connect to an issue we’ve been working to address in Michigan: prison gerrymandering.
These changes are not final. The public has until Monday, November 2, 2026, to submit comments.
What changes are being proposed?
On September 10, the U.S. Census Bureau published proposed rules for the 2030 Census.
The proposals include three major changes:
- Removing race and ethnicity questions. The proposal would prevent the Census Bureau from including race and ethnicity questions on questionnaires used for the decennial population count. The Bureau could still collect demographic information through other surveys and government records.
- Changing who counts toward seats in Congress. The proposal would count U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, also called green card holders, toward congressional representation. Other noncitizens would be excluded from the population totals used to determine how many seats each state receives in the U.S. House of Representatives.
- Changing how the Census determines where people live. The proposal would establish a January 3 through April 1 residence period and make tax records an important source for determining a person’s usual residence.
These changes have not taken effect.
Why does this matter for civil rights and representation?
The Census is conducted every 10 years. Its population data helps determine representation in Congress, guides the drawing of voting districts, and informs decisions about federal funding and public services.
The Fourteenth Amendment says congressional representation is based on the “whole number of persons in each State,” not just citizens.
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights argues that excluding residents who are not U.S. citizens or green card holders conflicts with this constitutional requirement. The proposed rule could exclude people who live legally in the United States, including refugees, asylum seekers, international students, and people with certain temporary immigration statuses.
Race and ethnicity data are essential tools for enforcing the Voting Rights Act. Census information helps identify whether voting districts split communities apart or concentrate them in ways that weaken their voting power.
The Leadership Conference warns that removing these questions would eliminate the detailed racial and ethnic population information currently used to draw voting districts and evaluate potential discrimination. Other surveys, including the American Community Survey, do not provide the same block-level detail.
The National Network for Arab American Communities (NNAAC), through ACCESS, has also raised concerns that removing race and ethnicity questions could make it harder to document discrimination in voting, housing, education, employment, and other areas.
The proposed changes could also affect the accuracy of the Census. NNAAC warns that collecting or checking immigration-status information could discourage participation among immigrant and mixed-status households, potentially resulting in undercounts that affect entire communities.
What about schools, health care, and other services?
Census data helps governments understand where people live and where services are needed.
Schools use population information to plan for students. Health departments use demographic data to identify health disparities. Communities rely on accurate counts when planning housing, transportation, emergency services, and infrastructure.
The Leadership Conference warns that inaccurate or incomplete Census data could affect those decisions for years after the 2030 Census.
What about people experiencing homelessness or housing instability?
The proposed residence rules raise additional concerns for people whose living situations may not match the addresses listed in government records.
NNAAC’s Census Campaign Toolkit identifies people experiencing homelessness, residents of shelters or temporary housing, students, and people who do not file taxes as populations that could be overlooked or counted in the wrong community.
The proposal would rely in part on tax records to help establish where someone lives. But not everyone files taxes, and a tax record may not reflect someone’s current living situation.
The proposed January 3 through April 1 residence period raises another concern. People who live in different places throughout the year, including seasonal workers, college students, and people with more than one residence, could be assigned to a location that does not reflect where they usually live.
What about prison gerrymandering?
The proposed Census rules specifically address incarcerated people. Under Section 60.9, people confined in prisons, jails, and juvenile detention facilities would continue to be counted at the facility where they are held, rather than at their home addresses. This is an existing federal Census practice that the proposed rule would formally retain.
This practice contributes to prison gerrymandering. When Census population counts are used to draw voting districts, districts containing prisons can gain political representation while the home communities of incarcerated people lose representation.
The impact in Michigan is significant. According to a Prison Policy Initiative analysis, one-third of Michigan’s incarcerated population was counted in just three state House districts during the last redistricting cycle, even though incarcerated people come from communities throughout the state.
VAAC has been working alongside other advocates to end prison gerrymandering in Michigan. In an article published by Michigan Voices, VAAC Executive Director Angela Davenport explains how counting people at prison locations shifts political representation away from the communities where they lived before incarceration and where many will return.
Michigan lawmakers introduced Senate Bill 537 in September 2025. The bill would require the collection of incarcerated people’s pre-incarceration addresses and provide that information to the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission for possible use in drawing voting districts. As of October 2026, the bill remains in the Senate Elections and Ethics Committee.
The next Census will take place in 2030, and its population counts will help shape Michigan’s voting districts for the following decade. Michigan can change how it uses Census data for redistricting even if the federal government continues counting incarcerated people at correctional facilities.
VAAC supports ending prison gerrymandering in Michigan before the 2030 Census. The goal is for representation to reflect the communities where incarcerated people lived before imprisonment, rather than inflating the population of districts containing prisons.
Read more about VAAC’s work on prison gerrymandering and our perspective in Michigan Voices.
Public comments are open through November 2
The Census Bureau extended the public comment period through Monday, November 2, 2026.
Public comments allow individuals and organizations to share concerns, questions, and experiences as part of the formal rulemaking record before the agency makes a final decision.
You can read the proposed federal rules and submit a comment through Regulations.gov. Search for USBC-2026-0628 to find the docket.
Comments generally become part of the public record and appear online. The Census Bureau accepts anonymous comments. Avoid including personal or sensitive information you do not want made public.
Concerned about civil rights and voting representation?
ACCESS and NNAAC have provided an individual public comment form focused on civil rights for people who want to address how the proposed changes could affect discrimination, representation, and the use of Census data to protect voting rights.
They have also provided comment forms addressing other concerns:
You don’t have to write a public comment from scratch! ACCESS and NNAAC have provided ready-to-use sample comments for individuals on civil rights, education, health care, small businesses, arts and culture, and general Census concerns. Choose the topic that matters to you, review the suggested language, and add your own experiences or concerns before submitting your comment.
Organizations can also use the organizational comment template from ACCESS and NNAAC to prepare and customize a public comment that reflects their work and the communities they serve.
Make your voice heard before November 2
The proposed 2030 Census rules raise questions about whose information is collected, where people are counted, and how population figures are used to determine political representation.
For VAAC, these issues connect directly to voting rights, housing instability, and our ongoing work to end prison gerrymandering in Michigan.
The public comment period closes November 2. Read the proposal, review the available resources, and submit a comment about how these proposed changes could affect your community.
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