With the Census on the horizon, Alabama’s growing population already impacting driver’s license numbers

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Alabama drivers license

Sure the 2020 Census may still be more than a year away, but Alabama’s growing population is already making an impact when it comes to state issued driver’s licenses.

On Tuesday, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) said it’s adding an eighth digit to all new driver licenses issued by the state starting Dec. 1 to account for the state’s growing population.

According to the AP, “Census statistics show the state’s estimated population at 4.9 million people in 2017. That’s an increase of about 2 percent since 2010.”

But driver’s license numbers aren’t the only thing 2020 U.S. Census could impact. Depending on participation levels and what the results indicate, Alabama risks losing a seat in the U.S. House of Representative as well as a vote in the Electoral College, and also federal funds.

Alabama’s Census lawsuit

Back in May, Alabama 5th District U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall filed a lawsuit against the federal government over what they said was the Census Bureau‘s “unlawful” decision to include of illegal immigrants in census data “used to determine the apportionment of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Electoral College.”

“If the U.S. Census Bureau follows through with its plan to include illegal aliens in the 2020 census for purposes of apportionment, Alabama will lose both a seat in the U.S. House of Representative and a vote in the Electoral College,” explained Marshall. “Alabama’s loss will be another state’s gain, as states with a growing illegal alien population will be the beneficiary of this reapportionment. I have joined with Congressman Mo Brooks in filing suit against the federal government to stop the inclusion of illegal aliens in the census’s apportionment population. The Constitution does not permit the dilution of our legal residents’ right to equal representation in this manner.”

The U.S. Census Bureau has until Tuesday, Nov. 13 to respond to the state’s lawsuit seeking to exclude immigrants living in the country illegally from U.S. Census counts.