Gerrymandering

Texas Lt. Gov Bill Hobby (1973-1991) pens a primer http://bitURL.net/?fmvt69  which offers three great examples of politics shaping census counts:

• In 1940, 13 percent more black men registered for the draft than were counted by the census in that age group.

• Sometimes overseas government personnel have been counted but not included. In 1986 Tom Foley from Washington state succeeded Tip O’Neill from Massachusetts as speaker of the House. In 1991 Congress included the overseas personnel and thereby shifted a seat and an electoral vote from Massachusetts to Washington state. Washington had 8,092 more people than Massachusetts. Would Massachusetts have lost the seat and the electoral vote to Washington had Tip O’Neill still been speaker? Go figure. As O’Neill famously remarked, “All politics is local.”

• Missionaries are not counted. After the 2000 census, Utah sued unsuccessfully for a fourth congressional seat and electoral vote at the expense of North Carolina, contending that Mormon missionaries serving overseas should be counted the same as overseas government personnel.