For the record, I’m a registered Independent voter. With that said… Recently, President Obama’s nominee for commerce secretary, Sen. Judd Gregg, unexpectedly withdrew from the position. Was it because of skeletons in his closet: unreported nanny taxes, inappropriate personal lifestyle, questionable business practices? No, the reason evidently had to with a disagreement over who would take control of the Census Bureau—the Commerce Department or the Obama Administration. At the center of the debate, however, was how the census would be conducted. Would it use the traditional actual count method or statistical sampling techniques?

Before explaining the differences between both approaches, I need to share some background information on the census. Every 10 years, our nation conducts the ritual of counting the population. The purpose of the census is more than just reporting it in high-school textbooks. The census determines how many seats each state gets in the House of Representatives and helps to determine where the district lines are drawn within each state. Literally, billions of dollars are at stake because these population-driven financing formulas can determine where federal spending is allocated.

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