Utah Sues, Hopes to Get House Seat From N.C.

The outcome of the case could determine if Utah or North Carolina gains an additional House seat.

The census counted federal employees, including military personnel living abroad, but not private citizens.

According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 14,124 missionaries from Utah are living abroad who were not counted.

If these citizens are counted, Utah's population might have increased enough to entitle it -- and not North Carolina -- to an extra House seat.

North Carolina edged Utah by only 856 people.

But census officials said it was nearly impossible to count private citizens living abroad due to a lack of data. And N.C. officials also are examining the suit, trying to protect the state's interests.

Ric Cantrell, spokesman for Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, said, "We only have three seats in the House. An extra congressional seat would be a 25 percent increase in our representation."

North Carolina has 12 seats in the House.

Shurtleff released a statement Wednesday highlighting the importance of equal representation for equal number of people and citing former U.S. Supreme Court rulings.

"The Supreme Court has said that to dilute the power of the vote is to deny the right to vote," according to the press release. "The bureau's action in 2000 was wrong."

But the Census Bureau released a statement on Monday stating that missionaries and other U.S. citizens living abroad were not counted because of "serious concerns about the accuracy of an attempt to count this component."

According to the press release, there are no complete address databases for citizens living abroad in a private capacity -- making it difficult to count them.

Census Bureau spokesman Maury Cagle said that a database of addresses is essential to the census-taking process.

"With federal civilians and military, we know how many and where and who they are," Cagle said. "We don't have that for missionaries."

The bureau relied on federal records maintained by various agencies to provide counts for Census 2000, which is the third time in census history that U.S. citizens living abroad have been included.

Cagle declined to comment on whether he feels Utah has an adequate case in light of the pending litigation.

But Julia White, chief of staff for N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, said Utah's actions are not legally appropriate. "The time to challenge was before, not afterwards," White said. "And also, if you're going to include missionaries living abroad in the census, North Carolina might come out ahead of Utah anyway."

The State & National Editor can be reached at stntdesk@unc.edu.