Session of 1999
         
Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 1614
         
By Committee on Elections and Local Government
         
3-16
         
  9             A  CONCURRENT  RESOLUTION concerning the plan of the United
10             States census bureau to use statistical sampling in the decennial census.
11      
12             WHEREAS,  The Constitution of the United States requires an actual
13       enumeration of the population every 10 years, and entrusts Congress with
14       overseeing all aspects of each decennial enumeration; and
15             WHEREAS,  The sole constitutional purpose of the decennial census
16       is to apportion the seats in Congress among the several states; and
17             WHEREAS,  An accurate and legal decennial census is necessary to
18       properly apportion U.S. House of Representatives seats among the 50
19       states and to create legislative districts within the states; and
20             WHEREAS,  An accurate and legal decennial census is necessary to
21       enable states to comply with the constitutional mandate of drawing state
22       legislative districts within the states; and
23             WHEREAS,  Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, in order to
24       ensure an accurate count, and to minimize the potential for political ma-
25       nipulation, mandates an "actual enumeration" of the population, which
26       requires a physical headcount of the population and prohibits statistical
27       guessing or estimates of the population; and
28             WHEREAS,  Title 13, Section 195 of the U.S. Code, consistent with
29       this constitutional mandate, expressly prohibits the use of statistical sam-
30       pling to enumerate the U.S. population for the purpose of reapportioning
31       the U.S. House of Representatives; and
32             WHEREAS,  Legislative redistricting conducted by the states is a crit-
33       ical subfunction of the constitutional requirement to apportion represen-
34       tatives among the states; and
35             WHEREAS,  The United States Supreme Court, in No. 98-404, De-
36       partment of Commerce, et al. v. United States House of Representatives,
37       et al., together with No. 98-564, Clinton, President of the United States,
38       et al., v. Glavin, et al., ruled on January 25, 1999, that the Census Act
39       prohibits the Census Bureau's proposed uses of statistical sampling in
40       calculating the population for purposes of apportionment; and
41             WHEREAS,  In reaching its findings, the United States Supreme
42       Court found that the use of statistical procedures to adjust census num-
43       bers would create a dilution of voting rights for citizens in legislative

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  1       redistricting, thus violating legal guarantees of "one-person, one-vote";
  2       and
  3             WHEREAS,  Consistent with this ruling and the constitutional and le-
  4       gal relationship of legislative redistricting by the states to the apportion-
  5       ment of the U.S. House of Representatives, the use of adjusted census
  6       data would raise serious questions of vote dilution and violate "one-per-
  7       son, one-vote" legal protections, thus exposing the State of Kansas to
  8       protracted litigation over legislative redistricting plans at great cost to the
  9       taxpayers of the State of Kansas, and likely result in a court ruling inval-
10       idating any legislative redistricting plan using census numbers that have
11       been determined in whole or in part by the use of random sampling
12       techniques or other statistical methodologies that add or subtract persons
13       to the census counts based solely on statistical inference; and
14             WHEREAS,  Consistent with this ruling, no person enumerated in the
15       census should ever be deleted from the census enumeration; and
16             WHEREAS,  Consistent with this ruling, every reasonable and prac-
17       tical effort should be made to obtain the fullest and most accurate count
18       of the population as possible, including appropriate funding for state and
19       local census outreach and education programs; as well as a provision for
20       post-census local review: Now, therefore,
21             Be it resolved by the Senate of the State of Kansas, the House of Rep-
22       resentatives concurring therein: That the Legislature calls on the Bu-
23       reau of the Census to conduct the 2000 decennial census consistent with
24       the aforementioned United States Supreme Court ruling and constitu-
25       tional mandate, which require a physical headcount of the population and
26       bars the use of statistical sampling to create, or in any way adjust the
27       count; and
28             Be it further resolved: That the Legislature opposes the use of P.L.
29       94-171 data for state legislative redistricting based on census numbers
30       that have been determined in whole or in part by the use of statistical
31       inferences derived by means of random sampling techniques or other
32       statistical methodologies that add or subtract persons to the census
33       counts; and
34             Be it further resolved: That the Legislature demands that the State
35       of Kansas receive P.L. 94-171 data for legislative redistricting identical to
36       the census tabulation data used to apportion seats in the U.S. House of
37       Representatives consistent to the aforementioned United States Supreme
38       Court ruling and constitutional mandate, which require a physical head-
39       count of the population and bar the use of statistical sampling to create,
40       or in any way adjust the count; and
41             Be it further resolved: That the Legislature urges Congress, as the
42       branch of government assigned the responsibility of overseeing the de-
43       cennial enumeration, to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure that

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  1       the 2000 decennial census is conducted fairly and legally; and
  2             Be it further resolved: That the Secretary of State be directed to
  3       transmit an enrolled copy of this resolution to the Speaker of the U.S.
  4       House of Representatives, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate, President
  5       and Vice-President of the United States and each member of the Kansas
  6       Congressional Delegation.
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