Census is a simple civic duty, not a government inquisition

Questions about race help ensure compliance with civil rights laws.

Tempted to toss that Census form that you and 120 million other U.S. households got this week? Think about what happened to people in Utah 10 years ago.

The state fell 856 people short of getting a new congressional seat, in a population of nearly 2.3 million. Utah officials argued all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court that some of the Census Bureau's methods were unfair. But they lost, and the seat went to North Carolina.

The moral of this story?

Just like votes in Florida in the 2000 presidential election, each Census form makes a difference in this once-a-decade head count. Its functions are vital, in particular reallocating House seats among states and distributing trillions of dollars in federal funds to states and localities. The Census also provides an indispensible mother lode of data about the nation and who we are as a people.

Yet, just say the word "Census" and critics appear, arguing that the system is cumbersome, intrusive, overly expensive or unnecessary — all bogus claims that get in the way of performing a simple civic duty.


In the late 1990s, the big fight was over a Clinton administration proposal to use a sample survey to adjust the apparent undercount of minorities, immigrants and children in the 1990 Census. After the Supreme Court ruled that sampling couldn't be used to allocate House seats, high-profile Republicans turned their fire on the "long form," which used to go to one in six households and famously asked how many bathrooms you have. Now that there's no long form to complain about (it has been replaced by a survey sent to just 250,000 households each month), there's grassroots griping about something else — two questions about race and ethnicity.

Some conservative bloggers are suggesting that everyone check the box labeled "other" and fill in "American." Bad idea. For one thing, American isn't a racial group. For another, it would defeat a major purpose of the Census, which is to ensure compliance with civil rights laws designed to outlaw discrimination in everything from employment to housing to education. The Voting Rights Act, for example, was enacted to prevent states from drawing voting districts to dilute minority voting. But if the federal government can't tell where Hispanics or African Americans live, it's tough to enforce.

Nor is the question about race some new, politically correct query: It has been part of the Census — as have four other questions this year — since the first Census was mandated by the nation's Founders. In fact, this year's form — with 10 questions for the head of the household and seven for everyone else — is one of the shortest since 1790.

Despite criticism, the questions aren't particularly intrusive. Anybody who files a tax return tells the federal government far more, including Social Security number and income. In fact, millions of people give up tons of personal information on Facebook or allow drugstores, supermarkets and bookstores to track their likes and dislikes through savings cards and online purchases.

Failing to return your form is not only illegal, it also adds to the price tag. The bureau sends out workers to every household with an unreturned form, at a cost of $57 per house.

Filling out that form is an exercise in good citizenship. It might even boost your representation in Congress. And if everyone did it, taxpayers would save about $1.5 billion.

Posted at 12:22 AM/ET, March 19, 2010 in USA TODAY editorial

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2010/03/ ... tion-.html