Reader comments
Making everyone count

That`s all we need is more congressman. We don`t need more over paid do nothing politations!

I guess Jack doesn't understand that the U.S. House of Representatives is limited to 435 and that if Utah had received a 4th House District that North Carolina would not have.

The problem really wasn't about counting missionaries, military, or Hispanics, Utah lost because illegal aliens were counted nation wide. For example in 2000 it was estimated that Utah had about 64,000 illegal aliens, but California had about 2.5 million, which was more than enough to give them three extra seats in congress. If illegal aliens had not been counted, several states would have lost seats while Utah, North Carolina and others gained them. Since illegal aliens are not allowed to vote (at least they aren't suppose to) states with large numbers of illegal aliens have an unfair voting advantage in both the House and presidential elections. I wonder if this is the reason for sanctuary policies is some states?

The constitutional purpose for the census is to insure equal representation in the House of Representatives and electoral vote allocation. All the other stuff that is counted is just fluff and provided to help businesses, and others that profit from this information

as long as it goest to one of our's--thus saith the Deseret News.

Missionaries, students, and others whose legal residence is Utah should be counted here even if they are temporarily residing abroad. Parents should simply include these people on the census forms they fill out. Easy enough.

But even as we make sure that we count all missionaries and worry about under-counting hispanics, let's remember how many illegal aliens we have here. Best estimates place upwards of 150,000 illegal aliens in Utah (about 5% of our population). How many of them were counted toward representation?

California may have as many as THREE extra congressmen thanks to illegal aliens living in that State.

Should we even be counting illegal aliens?

Who does congress represent?

Missing out on a 4th seat? That isn't the problem with the last census. The real problem with the last census was the politically biased gerrymandering of the Congressional Districts by the Republican majority in the Utah Legislature. Come on D-News!

In reply to Jack:
Are you kidding me? You may not agree with everything our politicians do (I know I don't), but the more we have in office the more of a voice our state gets. That is an important thing, especially considering how extreme Utah is on particular issues. You are right about not needing more "do nothing" politicians, instead we need "do something" ones. Which means you should vote if you don't, and encourage others to do the same. Maybe even run for office if you feel up to it.