Census 2000 Update: Challenges and Retabulations; Defining Metro and Rural; and Data Dates.

• Author: Rogers, Carol O.

Challenges and Retabulations--Two Ways to a Different Count

Unhappy with the census count for your city or town or county or township? After every census, there will be those communities that find themselves surprised and dissatisfied with the count. There is a program in place that will provide a way for some to challenge the results of the 2000 census. This program doesn't allow for a general sense that the census was "wrong." Local governments will be required to provide specific evidence with maps and address lists. The Census Question Resolution Program (CQR) is scheduled to begin June 1, 2001. Through this program, the federal government will allow governmental units to challenge the census based on boundary disputes or other geographic displacement. The CQR does not allow for challenges directly to the population count. Quoting from the January 22, 2001 Federal Register Notice, "no additional data will be collected as part of the CQR program. We will only use those data that have already been collected."

Three criteria form the essential core of this program:

(1) Boundary corrections--that is, correcting faulty jurisdictional boundaries.

(2) Geocoding corrections--corrections within a jurisdiction. For example, if a nursing home was incorrectly tabulated on one side of town when it actually belongs on the other side. This won't result in a different count for the town.

(3) Coverage corrections-- specific housing units or group quarters that were identified during the Census 2000 process but were erroneously included or excluded due to processing errors; such corrections could be additions or deletions.

The bottom line--no recount. Essentially, the count will be shifted within a jurisdiction (criteria 2), between jurisdictions (criteria 1), or by combing through the data collected through a variety of processes to identify wrongly included or excluded housing units or group quarters (criteria 3).

Read the Federal Register notice online at www.census.indiana.edu and click on "Challenges."

Retabulate to Capture Annexations

When a city or town annexes territory with significant numbers of people, the State of Indiana will accept a Census 2000 Retabulation. That is, if the community submits its new boundaries to the Census Bureau, the Bureau can re-sum (or retabulate) to those new boundaries. This is not free. And it isn't necessarily easy. However, it is an acceptable method of obtaining a Census 2000 count that reflects new territory...