Poll shows majority of Americans favor citizen-only census count for House seats
A new survey finds that about two-thirds of likely voters think congressional apportionment should be based only on U.S. citizens, with majorities across party lines supporting a citizenship question on the census.
A recent poll of 1,000 likely voters, conducted on Sept. 23 by McLaughlin & Associates and funded by the FAIR Election Fund, shows that 65% of respondents want congressional apportionment to count only U.S. citizens. The sentiment crosses party lines, with four in five Republicans, more than half of Democrats, and nearly six in ten independents backing the idea. The same survey indicates that 75% support a citizenship question on the census form, a measure that could enable the exclusion of non-citizens from seat calculations.
These results arrive as the Commerce Department, overseeing the Census Bureau, has proposed a rule to limit the apportionment base to citizens and green-card holders and to possibly add a legal-status question. The proposal revives efforts from the first Trump administration, which attempted similar changes via executive action and a citizenship question but faced legal setbacks. Conservative election lawyer Cleta Mitchell, who leads FAIR, said the poll confirms broad public backing for election-integrity reforms that restrict participation to citizens.
