Article by Gillian Tett: “Worrying about the state of America’s statistics might not seem that urgent, given all the other explosive political rows swirling in Washington. But voters should pay attention. For at the heart of this story are three key questions: can anyone paint an accurate portrait of what America is today? If so, how should this shape voting processes? And can this data be trusted in an era of manipulation, cyber hacks and artificial intelligence?
This matters. America’s founding fathers realised 250 years ago that you cannot create fair voting systems without measuring the population. So Article I, Section 2 of the Constitution states that Congress should carry out a census in “such manner as they shall by Law direct” every 10 years. Since 1790 census workers have always done that, crossing the country to count people, whether by horse, foot or car (or, in Alaska, on snow sleds).
The Constitution also stipulates that these census results should be used for “apportionment”, to divide the 435 seats in the US House of Representatives among the 50 states, based on each state’s population count. (The allocation in the Senate is permanently fixed.)
This makes it highly political. But it also matters economically: the census shapes how $1.5tn of state aid is distributed each year and is critical to business activity too. Civil rights activists argue this enables a fair apportionment and representation for minorities…(More)”.
