Driscoll Brings Discussion on Randolph Census Inaccuracies to Senate Census Committee

DECEMBER 11, 2025

Senator Bill Driscoll Jr. (D-Milton) recently provided oral testimony at the Senate Committee on the Census, detailing the ramifications of inaccurate census data on cities and towns. Speaking specifically about the Town of Randolph, the Senator brought to the Committee a detailed account of how undercounting the population in Randolph has had downstream effects on its Gateway Municipality eligibility.

Serving the town of Randolph for nine years, first as State Representative and now as State Senator, Driscoll has been involved in this ongoing discussion for some time. Early on in his role as State Representative, it became clear that Randolph was very close to Gateway Municipality eligibility, only a few hundred people shy of meeting the 35,000 person population minimum.

Accurate population counts carry significant implications and ramifications in terms of fair representation, affecting congressional delegations, eligibility for public programs, and more.

Recognizing this, it was expected that in the 2020 census Randolph would clear the 35,000 threshold, but when numbers were released the town fell short by 17 people. Feeling confident that their population was above the 35,000 threshold, the Town of Randolph began a multi-year process to appeal the census. This effort, supported by the UMass Donahue Institute, ultimately unearthed that there was a pattern of undercounting stemming from disability care homes that housed more residents than what was reflected in the count.

Following this appeal, the Census Bureau acknowledged the error through a letter from July 2023 and approved the Town’s appeal based on the presentation of materials submitted.

Although the appeal was approved, an updated population count was not provided in the letter, and further, was not corrected and reflected in the American Community Survey (ACS) until 2024. That means that Randolph was acknowledged to have won the appeal but was still undercounted in the public facing data between 2021 and 2024/25.

Once this adjustment was finally made, Randolph’s 2024 population estimate reported as 35,114.

The Senator also touched on details related to Annual Population Estimates and how population sizes also influence how often ACS surveys are conducted in towns and cities. ACS estimates are released annually for municipalities over a 65,000 population count threshold, compared to 5-year aggregate estimates for those below the threshold. This is important because municipalities with populations over 65,000 would have more available data, affecting how towns or cities qualify for programs.

Providing this testimony to the Senate Committee on the Census helped contextualize the real impacts that census over- or under-counting has on local the level.

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