A similarly disproportionate undercount has afflicted minorities at least since the Census Bureau began officially measuring the undercount in 1940. The result has been longterm, cumulative harm to the least affluent, least privileged people of our nation. The differential undercount deprives minorities of federal aid distributed by population and of representation in legislative districts that are apportioned according to population counts. Unfortunately, the issue of how best to count our population is now entangled in partisan politics. Republicans believe that rectifying the undercount of minorities through sampling methods would harm their political interests by counting additional Democratic-leaning persons.
Critics also charge that sampling subjects the census to political manipulation.
Neither argument withstands scrutiny. American census-takers have never taken a complete head count of the population. Despite technological improvements and increased funding, the 1990 undercount was greater than the undercount in 1980. Throughout history, the Census Bureau has used methods other than actual enumeration. If census-takers fail to contact people in a dwelling they believe to be occupied, the Bureau may assign people to the dwelling through secondhand reports from neighbors, mail carriers, and building supervisors.