Be Enumerated

This month, the United States Postal Service will deliver to every postal customer a questionnaire for the 2010 census. The Constitution calls it an "enumeration."

Why would the founders use a four syllable word when a single syllable word (count) might have done just as well? Because it was never just a count.

Here is the relevant passage from Article I Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution:


Section 2 - The House

The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

(Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.) (The previous sentence in parentheses was modified by the 14th Amendment, section 2.) The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five and Georgia three.

So the census was never a simple count. It involved arithmetic, too.

The first census of 1790 and each subsequent census through 1840 listed only the head of household, but divided the count of household members into different categories.

From 1850 on, individuals were listed, and the census began asking some pretty personal questions. In 1870, the census wanted to know if the individual was "deaf and dumb, blind, insane or idiotic." From the 1880 census (27 questions), I learned that my great grandfather was illiterate. From the 1910 census, I learned that two of my great grandmothers had children I had never heard about. The 1910 census and the 1930 census seem to hold the record to date for number of questions (32).

This year's census asks 10 questions. It should take about ten minutes to complete.

Please complete it and mail it back.

Census data not only determines how Congressional Representatives are apportioned, it determines state and local apportionment as well. Not only that, population from the census is one of the factors the state uses to determine how to distribute tax revenue to counties and municipalities, as well as to determine eligibility for certain grants.

So filling this form out is important for your town, your county, and your friends and neighbors.

One last thought: many homeowners in Oriental and elsewhere in Pamlico County also have homes elsewhere. If you have an option about where you report that you live for census purposes, count yourself here. It would help this community, and it has no effect on tax domicile. That's a separate issue.

Most of all, make sure you are enumerated!