Christopher Shays: “It may be in Connecticut we are sensitized to this fact because Connecticut tends to be an urban State. We know that the…”

“It may be in Connecticut we are sensitized to this fact because Connecticut tends to be an urban State. We know that the census has overlooked the count, particularly in urban areas. Mr. Speaker, as the gentlewomen have pointed out, we need an accurate census. It truly is the basis of our democracy, and as important as the Voting Rights Act. When I looked at the 1990 census, the census itself has determined they missed 8.4 million people. Totally missed them. It counted 4.4 million people twice. It also counted more than 13 million people in the wrong place, for a total error rate of 10 percent, a significant error rate. The undercount in urban areas is significant. It is in rural areas as well, but its impact in urban areas is quite significant given the large number of people who live in urban areas. This to me is quite distressing, 5.7 percent of those in the black community were not counted compared to 1.3 percent in the white community. And Latinos were also disproportionately missed.”