Talk Radio News Service: News, Politics, Media

By Antonia Aguilar
University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

On Friday, Assistant Director for Decennial Census Programs Daniel Weinberg urged Americans to remember to fill out their 2010 Census forms.

“The key reason we do a Census is to ensure that every community gets its fair share of political representation,” said Weinberg. “This census population data...are also used to distribute federal funds. As a matter of fact, over $400 billion a year is distributed on the bases of census data.”

Weinberg added that accurate Census counts are necessary to preserve equality regarding congressional representation. In the 1964 case of "Wesberry v. Sanders," the Supreme Court ruled that districts of the House of Representatives be composed of approximately equal populations in order to ensure fair representation of US citizens.

“Every district has to be the same size,” said Weinberg. “All congressional districts are drawn so that they have the same number of people based on the census.”