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Because of the bad optics of this, the US census has traditionally been extremely independent from law enforcement. The government has recently been attacking t
by WillPostForFood 6y ago
Because of the bad optics of this, the US census has traditionally been extremely independent from law enforcement. The government has recently been attacking this barrier e.g. with the citizenship question
Two points on history and tradition. The census was originally carried out by the US Marshals. That should indicate the importance and weight of the project. The citizenship question was part of the census until 2000 (1950 short form, 2000 long form).
If you are using the census to distribute voting power to states, and the distribution is based on count of citizens, not people, then it is a fair question to ask.
- spacemanmatt 6y agoThe census is used to fairly apportion infrastructure to areas where people actually live. That this is done by representation is an artifact of our political system, not the Constitutional mandate that requires he census. It's not a fair question, as you say.
- spacemanmatt 6y agoYou don't have to like it.
- matthewmcg 6y agoThe distribution of voting power is based on population, not citizenship. Non-citizens need to be counted too.
- nonplussed 6y agoOnly citizens can vote.
- hobs 6y agoIt doesn't matter - when the document was written America had tons of non-citizens and those people were counted. Slaves couldn't vote either, but in the famous compromise were counted as a portion of a person - the distribution of political power is why.
- kevinmchugh 6y agoCitizens of a certain age, who meet certain residency and bureaucratic requirements and haven't lost the right due to criminal convictions. Women only got the franchise 100 years ago, but had always been counted on the census.
- jfengel 6y agoAnd children still can't vote, and are also counted.
- conception 6y agoIt’s not based on citizens, but on the number of free persons living there (and three fifths non free). This particular word choice is important s as the census and the house have always been based on who’s living in the state not based on citizens living there.