30 Oct
2003
30 Oct
'03
1:50 p.m.
On Thu, 30 Oct 2003, Patty Becker wrote:
This all really comes down to the meaning of residence, for purposes of
inclusion in the census and the population count for reapportionment. As
such, it is highly political and who's on what side depends on who stands
to gain or lose. North Carolina beat out Utah for the 435th seat. The
report says that's because of counting the illegal aliens in NC. The
lawsuit Utah brought all the way to the Supreme Court, trying to change
this result and failing, argued that the young Mormon missionaries who are
abroad should be counted in Utah's population, which would then
(arithmetically) have given them the seat.
My personal view is that residence means living within the boundaries of
the 50 states and the District of Columia (although the DC population does
not count in executing the apportionment formula). This means that
non-citizens are counted and that people living abroad are not, whether
they're military or civilians. I say all this even though I'm from
Michigan, which according to the report lost its 16th seat because of the
counting of illegal aliens. People are people, they need services and they
need representation.
Patty Becker
I agree with you but that isn't quite what happens. Especially with the
military. Definition from the Census:
"Apportionment population
A state's apportionment population is the sum of its resident population
and a count of overseas U.S. military and federal civilian employees (and
their dependents living with them) allocated to the state, as reported by
the employing federal agencies."
My recollection is that military folks get counted based on which U.S.
base they lived at last, not the state in which they last lived as a
civilian. So I assume states with military bases get higher counts.
FWIW:-) jim b