Doesn the Constitution require an “actual enumeration” – and doesn that mean a door-to-door count?
A. The Constitution requires only that an “actual enumeration” of U.S. citizens be conducted every 10 years, and the most accurate count possible is what the Constitution’s framers had in mind since census data provides the fuel for a functioning democracy. Door-to-door enumeration by itself no longer accomplishes the most accurate census possible. As a panel from the National Research Council observed, ‘It is fruitless to continue trying to count every last person with traditional census methods of physical enumeration.’ Modern statistical sampling will no get a perfect count, either. But experts say it will come much closer… The Census Bureau’s methodology- designed as it is reduce chronic inaccuracy- upholds the spirit of the Constitution better than an error-plagued head count. The sampling design proposed for Census 2000 will produce just one number of known accuracy.
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