Can you guys explain to me the problem with asking people if they are Americans on a census of Americans? I mean what is so terrible about trying to count the number of Americans? I thought that was the whole point of a census particularly to be used to apportion representation and distribute resources
I must be missing something
Voting is, and has always been, done as a proportion of people, not citizens. (Think of the 3/5ths compromise). This is part of a play by the Republicans to do undo that, and make districts based on citizens. This impacts not only voting power, but also resource allocation. Anywhere with a University, or a large segment of foreigners would be disadvantaged. This is largely cities.
The other thing that the citizenship question does is that it will make it less likely that Hispanic citizens will fill out the form because of the legitimate fear that the information could be shared with ICE. Anyone living in a household that has both legals and illegals in it would be unlikely to fill out the census, thus skewing the data to underestimate Hispanics.
If you want to talk about full bore election reform to make it more fair/representative (like getting rid of the Senate) then going to citizenship might make sense. Making that change in a vacuum, however, does not.