From the Laurel Leader Call:
It won’t be long before workers begin formulating the 2010 Census, and Laurel resident Susan Clanan wants the area’s citizens to be ready.
Clanan voiced her concerns this week about possible fraud involved in the process.
“I called the Mississippi Governor’s Office and they said a questionnaire would be coming through the mail,” she said. “You shouldn’t let census workers into your home.”
Clanan said she had a family member in Illinois who allowed someone into her home for the census.
“They asked all kinds of questions about her house,” she said. “There have even been instances where people posed as census workers. I want people to know that when the census comes around to not let anyone into their house. All they have to do is fill out what comes to them in the mail and send it back.”
Clanan noted that participating in the census is a requirement for all U.S. citizens.
“I just want to protect the seniors,” she said. “There’s no knocking on doors, sitting down in the living room and asking intimate questions about where you live.”
According to the Mississippi Governor’s Website, the Census “sometimes called ‘Uncle Sam’s Headcount,’ is essentially a count of every person living within the United States. Census data is utilized by a variety of public and private organizations and, most importantly, is used to determine the share of federal funding available to states based on their current population.”
For more information, visit www.governorbarbour.com/features/census2010.html
Friday, October 30, 2009
NYTimes: Analysis of the Vitter Amendment
A Republican senator’s proposal to count only United States citizens when reapportioning Congress would cost California five seats and New York and Illinois one each, according to an independent analysis of census data released Tuesday. Texas, which is projected to gain three seats after the 2010 census, would get only one.
The proposed change would spare Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania the expected loss of one seat each. Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon and South Carolina would each gain a seat.
If every resident — citizens and noncitizens alike — is counted in 2010, as the Census Bureau usually does, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah would gain one seat each and Texas would get three, the analysis found.
Losing one seat each would be Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the analysis of census data through 2008 by demographers at Queens College of the City University of New York.
The Constitution, as amended, requires that Congressional districts be reapportioned on the basis of a count every 10 years of the “whole number of persons” in each state. The 10-question 2010 census form does not ask about citizenship, but the Census Bureau includes that question in other forms, including the 2006-8 American Community Survey released on Tuesday.
The proposed change would spare Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan and Pennsylvania the expected loss of one seat each. Indiana, Montana, North Carolina, Oregon and South Carolina would each gain a seat.
If every resident — citizens and noncitizens alike — is counted in 2010, as the Census Bureau usually does, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Nevada and Utah would gain one seat each and Texas would get three, the analysis found.
Losing one seat each would be Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania, according to the analysis of census data through 2008 by demographers at Queens College of the City University of New York.
The Constitution, as amended, requires that Congressional districts be reapportioned on the basis of a count every 10 years of the “whole number of persons” in each state. The 10-question 2010 census form does not ask about citizenship, but the Census Bureau includes that question in other forms, including the 2006-8 American Community Survey released on Tuesday.
Census Bureau launches 2010Census.gov
2010 Census
Census Bureau Launches 2010Census.gov -- In an effort to reach all American residents to inform them about the importance of the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau unveils an improved Internet site. The site's goal is to build a national dialogue about how everyone's participation helps paint a new "Portrait of America." This is the start of a massive outreach campaign that will be steadily growing as Census Day -- April 1, 2010 -- approaches.
Census Bureau Launches 2010Census.gov -- In an effort to reach all American residents to inform them about the importance of the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau unveils an improved Internet site. The site's goal is to build a national dialogue about how everyone's participation helps paint a new "Portrait of America." This is the start of a massive outreach campaign that will be steadily growing as Census Day -- April 1, 2010 -- approaches.
Wicker: MS could lose a seat in Census 2010 reapportionment process
From WTOK:
Could Mississippi lose another seat in Congress? Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said it's a possibility.
Speaking to reporters in the state Thursday, Wicker said statistics from the 2000 Census showed states like California counted illegal immigrants as citizens. He said it could happen again, with even more illegal immigration during the past decade.
"When it comes to reapportionment of our Congressional seats, when it comes to deciding how the electoral college is going to be allocated, how many seats Mississippi will have in the House of Representatives, how many votes we will have in the presidential election every four years, we need to count citizens and citizens only," said Wicker.
Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan lost a seat in Congress based on the 2000 Census.
Wicker is supporting a Senate amendment to add the question, "Are you a U.S. citizen?" to census forms that will go out in March 2010.
Wicker's press statement:
For Release Week of November 2, 2009
Contact: Jordan Stoick - (202) 224-6253
Report From Congress
By Senator Roger F. Wicker
WICKER: LACK OF CITIZENSHIP QUESTION ON CENSUS COULD HURT MISSISSIPPI
Senator Says Illegal Immigrants Elsewhere Could Cost State Funding, Congressional Representation
Many Mississippians are aware of next year's census, though few realize its results could have a negative impact on our state. Because of high concentrations of illegal immigrants in other states, Mississippi is at risk of losing a lot, including federal funding and one of our four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This would not be the first time our state has been impacted negatively by the number of non-citizens living elsewhere in the country. Following the 2000 census, Mississippi went from five seats to four in the House of Representatives. The Center for Immigration Studies stated in a 2003 report that this loss was due to the counting of illegal immigrants elsewhere in the country during the last census.
Our Constitution requires a census be taken every 10 years to decide how the 435 seats of the House will be divided. The seats are split among all states in proportion to their population, meaning that if non-citizens are counted toward apportionment, a state with a high number of illegal immigrants stands to receive greater congressional representation than a state with fewer non-citizens.
States with a high number of non-citizens would also be given greater influence in presidential elections, as the Electoral College system is based on the size of a state's congressional delegation. The numbers collected from the census are also used to decide the annual distribution of approximately $400 billion in federal funding, which means critical funding to states and localities goes disproportionately to those areas with more non-citizen residents.
CITIZENSHIP QUESTION NEEDED
In order to get an accurate snapshot of our nation's population and demographic makeup, I believe next year's census should count everyone. However, I do not believe that illegal immigrants and other non-citizens should be considered when deciding how congressional seats and federal funding are divided amongst the states. The only way we can make this critical distinction is if the census asks a question about citizenship. Unfortunately, in its current form, next year's 10-question census does not do so.
I support an effort currently underway in Congress to add the question of citizenship to next year's census. The push, being led by Senators David Vitter of Louisiana and Robert Bennett of Utah, represents a common sense approach that would provide the information needed to restore confidence in how our census data is used.
Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows there are 298 million people currently living in the U.S., a number that includes 21 million non-citizens. According to Numbers USA, including illegal immigrants and non-citizens in the reapportionment process would have a huge impact in how House seats are divided. The group states: "Counting only U.S. citizens would result in [House] districts with approximately 635,000 people, whereby counting all individuals regardless of citizenship would create districts with more than 685,000. Therefore, the state of California that has 5.7 million non-citizen residents could gain five or more seats in the House."
Many estimates show that states with high numbers of illegal immigrants - like California, Nevada, Texas, and New York - stand to gain after next year's census. These potential gains would likely come at the expense of a handful of other states without high populations of illegals. In addition to Mississippi, Louisiana also falls in this category, meaning two states still working to recover from the worst natural disaster to hit our country are vulnerable to losing critical federal funding and representation in Congress.
COMMON SENSE REFORM
Opponents of the plan to add a citizenship question to next year's census claim that it would be too costly to reprint forms and that there is not enough time to do so before the count takes place next spring. I disagree and believe it is too important to wait another ten years before addressing this issue. As James Gill, a columnist with the New Orleans Times Picayune, said, "Only a government bureaucrat could claim that adding one simple question could cause such havoc and take so long." He added, "It shouldn't take months to figure out how to ask whether respondents are citizens of this country."
It is unfair for Mississippi or any other state to be forced to cede influence and federal representation to other states that have high non-citizen populations, particularly those that harbor illegal immigrants. We experienced this after the 2000 census, and we should not allow it to happen again.
Could Mississippi lose another seat in Congress? Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker said it's a possibility.
Speaking to reporters in the state Thursday, Wicker said statistics from the 2000 Census showed states like California counted illegal immigrants as citizens. He said it could happen again, with even more illegal immigration during the past decade.
"When it comes to reapportionment of our Congressional seats, when it comes to deciding how the electoral college is going to be allocated, how many seats Mississippi will have in the House of Representatives, how many votes we will have in the presidential election every four years, we need to count citizens and citizens only," said Wicker.
Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan lost a seat in Congress based on the 2000 Census.
Wicker is supporting a Senate amendment to add the question, "Are you a U.S. citizen?" to census forms that will go out in March 2010.
Wicker's press statement:
For Release Week of November 2, 2009
Contact: Jordan Stoick - (202) 224-6253
Report From Congress
By Senator Roger F. Wicker
WICKER: LACK OF CITIZENSHIP QUESTION ON CENSUS COULD HURT MISSISSIPPI
Senator Says Illegal Immigrants Elsewhere Could Cost State Funding, Congressional Representation
Many Mississippians are aware of next year's census, though few realize its results could have a negative impact on our state. Because of high concentrations of illegal immigrants in other states, Mississippi is at risk of losing a lot, including federal funding and one of our four seats in the U.S. House of Representatives.
This would not be the first time our state has been impacted negatively by the number of non-citizens living elsewhere in the country. Following the 2000 census, Mississippi went from five seats to four in the House of Representatives. The Center for Immigration Studies stated in a 2003 report that this loss was due to the counting of illegal immigrants elsewhere in the country during the last census.
Our Constitution requires a census be taken every 10 years to decide how the 435 seats of the House will be divided. The seats are split among all states in proportion to their population, meaning that if non-citizens are counted toward apportionment, a state with a high number of illegal immigrants stands to receive greater congressional representation than a state with fewer non-citizens.
States with a high number of non-citizens would also be given greater influence in presidential elections, as the Electoral College system is based on the size of a state's congressional delegation. The numbers collected from the census are also used to decide the annual distribution of approximately $400 billion in federal funding, which means critical funding to states and localities goes disproportionately to those areas with more non-citizen residents.
CITIZENSHIP QUESTION NEEDED
In order to get an accurate snapshot of our nation's population and demographic makeup, I believe next year's census should count everyone. However, I do not believe that illegal immigrants and other non-citizens should be considered when deciding how congressional seats and federal funding are divided amongst the states. The only way we can make this critical distinction is if the census asks a question about citizenship. Unfortunately, in its current form, next year's 10-question census does not do so.
I support an effort currently underway in Congress to add the question of citizenship to next year's census. The push, being led by Senators David Vitter of Louisiana and Robert Bennett of Utah, represents a common sense approach that would provide the information needed to restore confidence in how our census data is used.
Recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows there are 298 million people currently living in the U.S., a number that includes 21 million non-citizens. According to Numbers USA, including illegal immigrants and non-citizens in the reapportionment process would have a huge impact in how House seats are divided. The group states: "Counting only U.S. citizens would result in [House] districts with approximately 635,000 people, whereby counting all individuals regardless of citizenship would create districts with more than 685,000. Therefore, the state of California that has 5.7 million non-citizen residents could gain five or more seats in the House."
Many estimates show that states with high numbers of illegal immigrants - like California, Nevada, Texas, and New York - stand to gain after next year's census. These potential gains would likely come at the expense of a handful of other states without high populations of illegals. In addition to Mississippi, Louisiana also falls in this category, meaning two states still working to recover from the worst natural disaster to hit our country are vulnerable to losing critical federal funding and representation in Congress.
COMMON SENSE REFORM
Opponents of the plan to add a citizenship question to next year's census claim that it would be too costly to reprint forms and that there is not enough time to do so before the count takes place next spring. I disagree and believe it is too important to wait another ten years before addressing this issue. As James Gill, a columnist with the New Orleans Times Picayune, said, "Only a government bureaucrat could claim that adding one simple question could cause such havoc and take so long." He added, "It shouldn't take months to figure out how to ask whether respondents are citizens of this country."
It is unfair for Mississippi or any other state to be forced to cede influence and federal representation to other states that have high non-citizen populations, particularly those that harbor illegal immigrants. We experienced this after the 2000 census, and we should not allow it to happen again.
Friday, October 9, 2009
Tension awaits as Legislature anticipates Census 2010 results
A snippet from the DeSoto Time Tribune, a local paper in one of the fastest, if not THE fastest, growing counties in MS. Will be interesting to see how redistricting affects this area...
Little of the same redistricting tension that surrounded the 2000 population census exists now as the Legislature awaits figures of the 2010 census. But that is not to say some angry partisan arm-wrestling — Democrat against Republican — over legislative redistricting won’t break out in the 2011 session.
A few things of consequence to Mississippi are known in advance of the 2010 census: One, though the state’s growth the past decade has been slow (less than 1 percent a year) it is not enough to cause the state to lose a U.S. House seat as it did in 2000; another, that since Mississippi elects officials in off-years, it will be one of the first three states to get the official census figures.
Assuming they will get census figures by March, 2011, lawmakers hope to start early on redistricting the 174 seats in the Legislature, a job that in 2002 wasn’t finished in regular session and required a special session. What clouded the 2002 session, however, was the explosive issue of having to remap the state’s five Congressional districts into four.
Little of the same redistricting tension that surrounded the 2000 population census exists now as the Legislature awaits figures of the 2010 census. But that is not to say some angry partisan arm-wrestling — Democrat against Republican — over legislative redistricting won’t break out in the 2011 session.
A few things of consequence to Mississippi are known in advance of the 2010 census: One, though the state’s growth the past decade has been slow (less than 1 percent a year) it is not enough to cause the state to lose a U.S. House seat as it did in 2000; another, that since Mississippi elects officials in off-years, it will be one of the first three states to get the official census figures.
Assuming they will get census figures by March, 2011, lawmakers hope to start early on redistricting the 174 seats in the Legislature, a job that in 2002 wasn’t finished in regular session and required a special session. What clouded the 2002 session, however, was the explosive issue of having to remap the state’s five Congressional districts into four.
Monday, October 5, 2009
CL: Census Bureau faces challenge with Gulf Coast count, plans special effort for accuracy
U.S. census plans special effort for the Gulf Coast - even four years later, Katrina's effects still felt
WASHINGTON — Harold Toussaint evacuated first to Tennessee, then to Georgia, then to New York City after Hurricane Katrina left his rental house in New Orleans under 5 feet of water in 2005.
Like other hurricane victims, Toussaint says he plans to return soon to New Orleans. And that's where he wants the 2010 U.S. census to count him.
"It's our home," said Toussaint, 59, who has lived in Harlem for two years. "We want to be recognized as New Orleanians. It just breaks our hearts to be deprived of it and our connection."
Which city Toussaint calls home next April is at the heart of a debate over how displaced Gulf Coast residents should be counted in the 2010 census, less than six months away.
Much is at stake for communities devastated by the hurricanes and those in other states where thousands of storm victims fled. The census conducts a major population count every 10 years in addition to other, smaller counts, and results determine congressional seats and federal funding for such things as free school lunches and highway projects.
Next year, in an effort to better count Gulf Coast residents, census officials will hand-deliver more than 300,000 questionnaires to areas in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas that suffered heavy hurricane damage. The questionnaires will be mailed to people in the rest of the country.
"We're going to every address and dropping off the questionnaire because, quite reasonably, the residents there are saying, 'Well, the addresses where people were living ... are not going to be there,' " Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said.
WASHINGTON — Harold Toussaint evacuated first to Tennessee, then to Georgia, then to New York City after Hurricane Katrina left his rental house in New Orleans under 5 feet of water in 2005.
Like other hurricane victims, Toussaint says he plans to return soon to New Orleans. And that's where he wants the 2010 U.S. census to count him.
"It's our home," said Toussaint, 59, who has lived in Harlem for two years. "We want to be recognized as New Orleanians. It just breaks our hearts to be deprived of it and our connection."
Which city Toussaint calls home next April is at the heart of a debate over how displaced Gulf Coast residents should be counted in the 2010 census, less than six months away.
Much is at stake for communities devastated by the hurricanes and those in other states where thousands of storm victims fled. The census conducts a major population count every 10 years in addition to other, smaller counts, and results determine congressional seats and federal funding for such things as free school lunches and highway projects.
Next year, in an effort to better count Gulf Coast residents, census officials will hand-deliver more than 300,000 questionnaires to areas in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas that suffered heavy hurricane damage. The questionnaires will be mailed to people in the rest of the country.
"We're going to every address and dropping off the questionnaire because, quite reasonably, the residents there are saying, 'Well, the addresses where people were living ... are not going to be there,' " Census Bureau Director Robert Groves said.
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