A very odd fact check. PolitiFact is taking issue with Republican Patrick McHenry for saying that conservatives aren’t sending in their census forms. According to PolitiFact, this is false:
For McHenry to make a conclusion about a national trend based on low participation rates in four small Texas counties is a stretch. Especially when one considers that these were low-participating counties in the last census too; and that there are lots of other low-participating counties in Texas that are not conservative.
On top of that, the Pew survey shows that while Republicans may be more distrustful of the census, they are by and large planning to participate, even at slightly higher rates that Democrats. Also, an independent review of all the counties in Texas showed that not only is McHenry’s claim unfounded, the opposite is more likely true — as counties that voted for McCain over Obama in 2008 have had slightly higher participation rates. And while decidedly conservative Texas has lagged behind the national average, there are lots of red states performing above the national average as well.
A spokeswoman from McHenry’s office told us he was just trying to be proactive and encourage all Americans to be counted. It’s hard to find fault with that. Still, we just don’t find any evidence that his premise that conservatives have been less likely to return their census forms than liberals is true. We rule McHenry’s statement False.
Who knew? If you just watched MSDNC, you’d assume conservatives only wanted to shoot Census workers.