Best of Trump

[kscarbel2]

11 hours ago, Geoff Weeks said:

That is not what the wording says. It says the Us shall hold a count of the population every 10 years. There is no "shouldn't" it is count of people. 

If you want something different, then start and fund another count. The one that is spelled out is a count of the population.

 You want a different count, I get that. Then create the law and provide the funds to do that.

And yet, the intent of the wording is obvious.

The wording doesn't state both legal residents and illegal aliens, since there obviously shouldn't be any illegal aliens on U.S. soil. 

[67RModel]

Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3:

"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 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."

I'm not a constitutional scholar but I think the phrase "free Persons" refers to non slaves. The 13th amendment abolished slavery, which modified this clause and then the 14th amendment revised the meaning to the number of "whole number of persons in each state" not the "three fifths" of the slaves.

14th Amendment, Section 2:

"Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, Representatives in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State."

I think that is about as clear as mud as to whether or not non citizens, or specifically, illegal aliens should be counted in the enumeration. Moreover how would you count them anyway or discern whether or not the respondents at a specific address were illegal or not. They could just lie. It is just a paper form that a person can fill out any which way they like. I highly doubt there is any system in place to verify based on tax filings, welfare recipient logs, etc that would corroborate whether or not the people residing at a specific address are legal citizens or not. My guess is illegal aliens would never disclose on a census form that they are illegal as that would obviously be very incriminating. I know back in 2020 I didn't fill mine out for many weeks. They sent people to my door several times and I never answered. Finally they sent me certified mail with proof of mailing / signature of receipt threatening legal action if the form was not received for my address. Filled it out. Never heard another word from them. I think they can scare people into submitting the form but verifying whether or not any questions on the form are answered correctly are impossible to verify.

For various reasons I think it would be handy information to know how many total people are in a state / district (legals and illegals), however representation should only be determined by legal citizens. If you have voter ID rules in place it should be a moot point. Moreover the entire country has been gerrymandered into oblivion such that even legal citizens votes don't really count. There are 435 congressional districts in the country but only 22 or 25 are contestable. 

[other dog]

As we all know, I'm not an expert on anything but I'll put my 2 cents in anyway. Here's what the Google machine says-

Now, I'm not an expert in anything, but a resident is someone who lives in a place. If I'm visiting Chicago, or let's say Mexico City, that doesn't make me a resident of either place so I should not be counted in any kind of official census there. That's how I see it anyway.

Illegal immigrants should not be considered permanent or long term residents.

[Geoff Weeks]

Census is collected by: in person census takers, and MAILING to residence's. If you were visiting, you wouldn't have a mailing address.

Your "shouldn't be counted" is based on your opinion, not what the law says. 

Census and voting are not connected. You can be a resident alien, have the right to work, live and own property and not the right to vote.