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Phantom constituents in the Empire State: How outdated Census Bureau methodology burdens New York counties

By Peter Wagner, Meghan Rudy, Ellie Happel and Will Goldberg
July 18, 2007

• Press release
• Executive Summary
• Report (HTML)
• Essex County Local Law No 1 of 2003
• Table showing size of vote dilution and type of government in New York Counties
• Complete Report (PDF)

Coverage

• Inmates Have Political Pull in Some New York Counties by Sam Roberts, New York Times, August 7, 2007
• Phantom Voters in New York New York Times Editorial, July 23, 2007
• 'Phantom constituents' are found Prisoner advocates say towns got disproportionate political power by claiming inmates as residents, by Michael Hill, Associated Press, Albany Times Union and a longer version appeared in the Daily Freeman, the Poughkeepsie Journal and in papers across New York.

Upcoming events:

• September 25, 2008: Please join us in Boston for a reception to benefit the Prison Policy Initiative. Location TBA. 6pm.

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From the blog:

• Census Bureau should use forms, not administrative records, to count people in prison Jun. 25, 2008
• Legislators ask Census Bureau to change prison count May. 28, 2008
• Prisons Warp Vote Jan. 8, 2008

Prisoners of the Census is a project of the Prison Policy Initiative. The primary author is Executive Director Peter Wagner (413) 527-1333 ISSN 1552-4418 RSS XML Feed
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