Work on a CVAP directly from the 2020 Census data has been suspended indefinitely. The following information is provided to inform the public of the proposed design for this experimental special tabulation from the 2020 Census and administrative records. 

The Census Bureau suspended all work on the Post-2020 Census CVAP Special Tabulation on January 12, 2021 following the Executive Order on Ensuring a Lawful and Accurate Enumeration and Apportionment Pursuant to the Decennial Census. The Census Bureau had planned to produce this tabulation using 2020 Census and administrative records data and publish it to the census block level. On Jan. 21, 2021 the Census Bureau advised that it would reengage with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to confirm that the Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) data produced from the American Community Survey (ACS) continue to meet its statistical needs. On Feb. 16, the Census Bureau received a letter from DOJ stating that the CVAP data from the ACS, on which it has traditionally relied, are adequate for its enforcement of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. DOJ did not request compilation or release of additional citizenship or CVAP data beyond this ACS data. 

The report, Determination of the 2020 U.S. Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) Using Administrative Records and Statistical Methodology Technical Report, is now available.

This report documents the efforts of the Census Bureau’s Citizen Voting-Age Population (CVAP) Internal Expert Panel (IEP) and Technical Working Group (TWG) toward the use of multiple data sources to produce block-level statistics on the citizen voting-age population for use in enforcing the Voting Rights Act. It describes the administrative, survey, and census data sources used, and the four approaches developed for combining these data to produce CVAP estimates. It also discusses other aspects of the estimation process, including how records were linked across the multiple data sources, and the measures taken to protect the confidentiality of the data.

A preliminary version of the technical documentation, Post-2020 Census CVAP Special Tabulation Technical Documentation, which describes the output file formats and geographies is also available. A final version of the technical documentation would have accompanied the eventual release of the special tabulation.

The Census Bureau had planned to produce the data files in both CSV and SAS formats. They would have been posted as zip files, containing a final version of the CVAP technical documentation. The Census Bureau had planned to produce the files for the following geographies:

NATIONWIDE FILE SETS:

• Nation
• State

STATEWIDE FILE SETS 

• Congressional District
• State Legislative District (Upper House & Lower House)
• County
• Place
• MCD (Minor Civil Division - only for CT, MA, ME, MI, MN, NH, NJ, NY, PA, RI, VT, and WI)
• Tract
• Block Group
• Block