Undercount could cost El Paso House seat

Ramon Bracamontes
El Paso Times
August 17, 2010

EL PASO --The county is in danger of losing one of its state representative seats because of possible inaccuracies with the ongoing U.S. Census population count, several elected officials told a Texas House of Representatives committee on Monday.

The committee came to El Paso to talk about redistricting.

The current U.S. Census population projection for El Paso County is about 754,000. The 2010 Census count will not be made final until December, but if the current estimate holds, El Paso would only be entitled to four state representative seats, said state Rep. Chente Quintanilla, D-El Paso. El Paso County currently has five state representatives.

Political boundary lines are redrawn every 10 years and the Texas Legislature uses the census to redraw districts.

Ten years ago, El Paso's population was 679,000, meriting five state representative seats.

U.S. Census Bureau officials in El Paso referred all questions to the bureau's Dallas office. Dallas census officials did not return phone calls seeking comment.

If the county population remains listed at 754,000, Quintanilla's seat may have to be shared with several counties in West Texas, because El Paso would not have grown as fast as the rest of the state. Each state representative will serve about 165,000 people. Ten years ago, the breakdown was one representative for about 135,000 people.

To merit five state representatives seats, El Paso's final population count must be closer to 800,000.

Quintanilla and county Commissioners Willie Gandara and Anna Perez asked the state committee to order the Census Bureau to re-examine its count for El Paso County.

"We've been frustrated with the census ever since January, because we know census counts are not being done accurately," Quintanilla said.

Quintanilla, who lives in Tornillo, said several constituents have told him that they never received a census questionnaire and that no one has visited to count them. Quintanilla said his census form was left outside his door.

"I looked at it and filled it out because I knew what it was," he said. "Others didn't even open it."

Gandara, who used to be the mayor of Socorro, estimated that as many as 50,000 people were not counted in Socorro, San Elizario and other parts of the Lower Valley. He said people in colonias, newly subdivided lots and unincorporated areas could have been missed by census-takers.

"If the count isn't accurate, Socorro stands to lose thousands of dollars in federal aid," Gandara said. "We are also concerned that we might lose a state rep, and that would be Chente."

State Rep. Joe Pickett, D-El Paso, who brought the committee to El Paso, said the panel would ask the Census Bureau's regional director for Texas to appear before the next redistricting committee hearing to explain his methodology.

Pickett, who lives within the city limits, said he has yet to be counted. He has not been mailed a form, even though he has requested one from the Census Bureau by phone and online.

"I'm still waiting," he said.

The overall concern in El Paso County is that as many as 100,000 people are not being counted, Pickett and Quintanilla said.

Among those who are not being counted are thousands of Fort Bliss soldiers and their families who are in the midst of moving to El Paso. They will arrive next year. Other cities, though, experience this same issue, people relocating to Dallas or Houston also would not be counted on speculation of where they will reside.

Another concern for El Paso, politicians said, was that hundreds or thousands who recently moved to El Paso from Ju?rez might have gone uncounted.

The state committee on redistricting will meet Wednesday in Lubbock. The state's political boundary lines will be redrawn during the 2011 legislative session, which begins in January.