If it looks like a census form, feels like a census form and even blares the word census all over it — it’s not necessarily a census form.
The Republican National Committee is mailing fundraising letters that closely resemble census forms from coast to coast.
“Enclosed is your official 2020 CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT CENSUS … in your name as a representative of Yorktown Heights,” reads a letter sent to a registered Republican in Westchester County that was obtained by the Daily News. The missive even assigned the recipient a seven-digit “registered code” similar to codes used to access online forms for the real census.
“This is the largest Congressional District Census our Party has ever taken for a Presidential election,” the letter continues in two front-and-back pages of text.
“This is a perversion of the normal functioning of government,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of the good-government group Common Cause New York. “It’s timing is particularly objectionable because it will confuse people and discourage them from actually participating in the official census.”
The mailing also includes a large form with 41 multiple-choice questions that mimic the real 2020 census that will be distributed starting next month. At the bottom, there’s a large box to “certify” the survey and provide credit card details to make a contribution to the RNC.
While the questions are about political views — a no-no on the real thing, which collects a range of demographic info — critics say the RNC mailings could trick people into thinking they’ve completed a census and wreak havoc on the process of counting Americans.
Similar RNC mailings have been spotted in Ohio, Montana, Washington, and California, Lerner said.
Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) grilled the Census Bureau’s director at a congressional hearing on Thursday.
“This is not the first time that we have seen the RNC … try to confuse voters by sending them a mailer that imitates the census,” the congresswoman said. “This mailing has already gone out, so the time to stop it has already happened.”
Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham said he hadn’t seen the RNC’s mailings but promised to look into the issue.
“I’ve heard generally about the problem,” he said. “We will study this problem.”
Similar tactics from the RNC in 2010 prompted Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to write the Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act. The law bars non-government groups from sending solicitations with the word “census” on the envelope, outside cover or wrapper through U.S. mail.
Maloney fumed at the emergence of a phony census from the RNC just outside the city.
“Clearly, the RNC has found a way to skirt the law deliberately, making their actions even more reprehensible,” she said in a statement. “These mailings sow confusion at a time when the public needs clarity about the census – putting an accurate count in danger.
“I am now working to strengthen the language of the Prevent Deceptive Census Look Alike Mailings Act so that these dirty political tricks can’t be used in the future.”
The RNC declined to disclose how many fake census letters it has sent in New York and nationwide.
“This ‘story’ is nothing new and has already been covered several times,” an RNC official said.
The Democratic National Committee has never sent fundraising mail disguised as the census, a spokesman said.
The mailings come as many states are spending millions of dollars to educate residents about the census, results of which determine political maps, federal spending and a host of vital civic functions. Gov. Cuomo allocated $60 million to census outreach, while the city is spending $40 million on the effort. The Trump administration dropped plans to ask people about their citizenship status, but the furor sparked fears that non-citizens and members of minority groups will refuse to complete census forms.
The example of the RNC mailing obtained by The News was sent to a household in Rep. Nita Lowey’s district.
“Republicans seem to have a ceaseless imagination when it comes to both fundraising and undermining the accuracy of the census,” said Lowey, a Democrat who’s retiring at the end of this term. “Soliciting campaign donations under the guise of a census document is fraudulent, predatory and the latest way Republicans have threatened an accurate census count.”
Josh Eisen, a Republican running to succeed her, did not answer a request for comment.
