Congress asked the National Academies of Science to review the issue. There are a limited number of seats in the House of Representatives - 435. If one state picks up a seat, some other state loses one. Those seats would come from states that did not have large numbers of undercounted people, like West Virginia. The parallels between the census debate and the Florida recount controversy are hard to miss, said Census Bureau spokesman Dwight Johnson.
People tend to divide on the issue based on which side they want to win.
Republicans tend to challenge the Census Bureau's efforts to adjust numbers to include more minorities and children. Democrats, who draw on minorities for support, tend to support the bureau's efforts. In Florida, Gore supporters were more likely to want to recount ballots than Bush supporters, who saw their candidate winning when the counting stopped. Everything is a contest. It's a sum-zero game with winners and losers.