Word: censuses
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...problem is that it is not easy to count every person in the United States, and some communities are disproportionately left out of the total. The 1990 census missed an estimated 8 million people - mostly immigrants and urban minorities - and it managed to double-count 4 million white Americans. Recent or illegal immigrants are often reluctant to answer questions in a government survey, and many experts fear that concerns about government misuse of personal data post-9/11 could hamper participation in the 2010 census as well. Children have also traditionally been underincluded in census totals...
...possible to use statistical modeling and sampling methods to supplement the census in order to arrive at estimated counts of various demographic groups. But there is fierce debate about whether these methods correct or distort the census count. In 1999, the Supreme Court ruled that sampling could not be used for the purposes of reapportioning congressional seats, and the Bush Administration chose not to use sampling to fill in the gaps of the 2000 census...
...battle over how to count people only makes sense when you look at what is at stake. The redistricting of local districts and reapportionment of congressional seats is based on census counts - a state could gain or lose seats based on its population, and shifts within a state determine plans for redrawing political boundaries. The redistricting that took place in Texas at Tom DeLay's urging following the 2000 census - which swung six congressional seats to the GOP - is just one example of how dramatically political fortunes can shift based on the use of those crucial numbers...
...Census counts are also used to determine how many federal dollars may flow to a city or state based on grants and other outlays. Democrats have long charged that the undercounting of minorities and poor Americans prevents federal funding from reaching strapped communities. Meanwhile, Republicans argue that Democrats seek to boost numbers in order to create extra congressional districts in urban areas and to bring in more federal money for their constituencies. They charge that sampling - which Democrats support because it provides estimates for communities that can be hard to track accurately - is unconstitutional because the Constitution calls...
...seems fairly certain that the White House did not anticipate census politics to play into its nomination of Gregg to the Commerce post. And Gregg himself backed off the issue in a news conference after he announced his withdrawal, insisting that his concerns over the census were "slight" and refusing to address it further. Nonetheless, the experience has reminded partisans on the left and the right of their investment in the census. The fight to determine how it happens and what the consequences will be has only just begun...