Phantom constituents in the Empire State: How outdated Census Bureau methodology burdens New York counties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

Speaking engagements:

• July 5, 2009: FireDogLake will feature PPI Board member Eric Lotke's novel 2044 on its book salon this Sunday evening. Please join them! In 2044, the problem isn't Big Brother. It's Big Brother, Inc.
• July 13, 2009: Executive Director Peter Wagner will be speaking about prison-based gerrymandering at a 2010 Census workshop at the NAACP's 100th annual convention in NYC and on a "Census and Redistricting" panel at the CLE held during the convention.
• July 21, 2009: Peter Wagner will be speaking about technical solutions to avoid prison-based gerrymandering on a panel at the National Conference of State Legislature's Legislative Summit in Philadelphia.
• August 6, 2009: Peter Wagner will discuss our sentencing enhancement zone reports at the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers conference in Boston.

Not near you? Invite Peter to your town.

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