Statistical Modeling Methodology for the Voting Rights Act Section 203 Language Assistance Determinations

摘要

Section 203 of the Voting Rights Act relates to provisions requiring the use of election materials in languages other than English for states or political subdivisions when their voting age populations have certain characteristics. Data from the 2010 Census and the American Community Survey (ACS) provide counts and estimates for these characteristics. The ACS is a general purpose sample survey designed to produce a large volume of estimates across the spectrum of the nation's geographic areas and subgroups of the population. This document describes a small area model which was developed and applied to provide improved estimates of characteristics for states and political subdivisions relating to citizenship, limited-English proficiency, and illiteracy. Methods of constructing point estimates under an empirical Bayes procedure are detailed. Methods for estimating the precision of the estimates are described in an appendix. This technical report presents models and methodology. Descriptions of data and analysis in support of and in assessment of modeling decisions made in producing the estimates will be supplied in a future report.