Cities And Immigrants Drove Census Controversy — 100 Years Ago

There was a time when Congress delayed applying the count as intended — essentially ignoring it for almost a full decade — and, like today, the controversy centered around immigration and people moving to cities.

What the census does and what it means to politics

The census numbers are used to re-slice the pie of federal funding under a variety of programs. And once each decade, these numbers are used to reallocate the seats in Congress to maintain proportional representation there (and in the Electoral College).

If a state gains population relative to other states, it gains one or more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives (and thus in the Electoral College). And if a part of a state grows relative to other parts, the map of that state's congressional districts is redrawn accordingly.