The Census Bureau report on noncitizen voting in the 2020 election lacked an author and a reviewer.
Posted by Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers, Checked
- Sources
- 4 support1 context
- Said
- 1 time·
- Confidence
- 60%
Platypus Economics with Justin WolfersAug 28, 2026
Multiple sources say the Census Bureau's 'Noncitizen Voting in the 2020 Election, A Beginning Analysis' was published without attribution or an author, which supports the author element. No source directly addresses whether it had a reviewer, so that element is unconfirmed rather than contradicted, and the post's 'no reviewer' point is graded only as far as the sources reach.
What was said
… I was surprised I didn't actually receive any calls from career staff, but they left plenty of clues that this was not business as usual. That's why there was no author, there was no reviewer. Normally when you release a report, it's part of a report series. It was not one of those blah blah. In some sense, we're lucky that Mikowski got in the way in this time. …
Platypus Economics with Justin Wolfers · · from the transcriptPost →What we found
Supports. Georgetown's Amy O'Hara says the report was published under the Census Bureau's banner 'with no attribution.'[1]
Supports. NPR reports the seven-page report is unauthored, and that it does not say which division produced it or who the authors were.[2][3]
Supports. Justin Fox describes the report as anonymous, and reports that it was produced outside regular Census Bureau channels.[4]
Context. WIRED reports that it identified several of the report's authors through its own reporting, including a former DOGE affiliate and two America First Policy Institute researchers, which complicates the 'no author' framing but does not show a bylined author on the report itself.[5]
Context. No source directly addresses whether the report had a reviewer; NPR says the work was not conducted by career civil servants, which is related but not the same point.[3]
Sources
5 sources: 1 primary, 1 tier 2, 3 not rated
- 1Dissecting the “Beginning Analysis” of Noncitizen Votingmdi.georgetown.edu · primary source · cited for: supports
- 2A Census Bureau report on noncitizen voting has ties to a Trump-aligned think tanknpr.org · tier 2 · cited for: supports
- 3Experts raise alarms over Census Bureau report Trump is ...wnyc.org · not rated · cited for: supports, context
- 4Justin Fox: Noncitizens don't sway elections, even in a pro-Trump tallynewsobserver.com · not rated · cited for: supports
- 5A US Census Report on Noncitizen Voting Used Bad Data to Reach ...wired.com · not rated · cited for: context
Where this claim was made
Said in 1 published post
Related claims
- The Census Bureau paper regarding non-citizen voting in the 2020 election lists no authors.True
- The Census Bureau released a report claiming that 24,000 noncitizens voted in the 2020 election.True
- The Census Bureau paper regarding non-citizen voting in the 2020 election was produced by political operatives at an outside think tank.True
- The acting Census Bureau director brought in outside think-tank staff to write the report on noncitizen voting in the 2020 election.Can’t tell
- The U.S. Census Bureau released a paper this week claiming that at least 24,000 non-citizens voted in the 2020 election.True