U.S. Constitution calls for a census of the population in:
Article 1: Section 2: Clause 3:
The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers,...
To enumerate is:
1. to list.
2. to count.
In recent years there has been a movement towards census sampling rather than enumeration,
A sample is:
1. a portion, piece, or segment representative of a whole.
2. a set of elements analyzed to estimate the characteristics of a population.
The Constitution is the basic contract under which all other American contracts are found. In the contract it states that an actual Enumeration shall be made. It does not say sample. So why are some politicians trying to change the Constitution without seeking a Constitutional Amendment?
The answer is to be found during evening cable news talk shows. The Democrats have announced that a lot of people were not counted during the 1990 census. Most of these "missed" people were lost from traditionally Democrat areas. If they had been counted, two things might happen. First, more federal money would be flowing into those missed areas under federal formulas used to pass out money. Second, some states might gain or not lose numbers in the Congress based on a changed population count.
Sampling assumes it can accurately predict how many people are found in an area where census takers did not find them. If there are five people living in every apartment in a building and one apartment never opens its door to the census taker, sampling would assume there are probably five people in that apartment too. That assumption directly leads to higher local revenues from federal tax distribution formulas and greater Congressional representation. So you can understand why some politicians want sampling in place of an actual count.
If the U.S. assumes there are more urban people, what happens to rural Congressional representation? What about federal money bases on tax distribution formulas? Rural states are concerned that sampling will change the balance of power in the federal legislature.
If the states want sampling, than put it to them in the form of a Constitutional Amendment. The political elite should not change the contract unconstitutionally.
Lee A. Presser
