Obama Officially Taps Groves to Head the Census

President Barack Obama on Thursday afternoon named University of Michigan professor Robert Groves to be Census Bureau director.

Groves is believed to back statistical sampling of the Census, and his appointment is already beginning to generate a firestorm on Capitol Hill. The next population count is set for 2010.

Groves has a long record of studying surveying methods, publishing numerous book chapters and articles on the topic. He served from 1990 to 1992 as Census associate director for statistical design, standards and methodology. In an interview this afternoon with Roll Call, former Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher, who ran the department when Groves was at the Census Bureau, said Groves was among those who backed sampling and pushed for its use in the Census.

Mosbacher said he rejected the effort because he and senior aides determined that sampling did not pass constitutional muster since the advocates could not prove it was any more accurate than performing a traditional count.

Statistical sampling, which adjusts counts to account for low response rates by certain population segments, is ardently opposed by many Republicans.

Republicans on Thursday began expressing misgivings about the appointment.

Of course there are misgivings about a man who professes to be a big advocate of statistical sampling.  Sampling is a very biased process and data can be manipulated any which way you would like.  Anyone who has taken statistics knows that sampling is fun, if you like numbers, and can also be used to achieve a goal in marketing or business to make it appear as though a certain population approves or disapproves of something, etc.  I do not know the specific constitutional provisions that this type of census building would not meet, but I don’t doubt that’s the case because of the manipulation factor in this mathematical method. 

Take for example the simple tracking polls conducted by the pollsters during elections and note that many republicans have never been called or polled.  Many republicans work during the day and therefore, do not respond to those polls and typically the results are very left leaning.  Sampling also doesn’t take into account that certain demographics, political parties etc. are more apt to respond than others, whom are less likely to answer the questions or even hang up on the person giving the survey/sample. 

What I learned in statistics is as simple as saying that the sample conducted was picked at random using that standard statistics table you get in the back of your text book (gives you a way to code) then based on that code picked names out of the phone book.  Well, what about those people and demographics that are less likely to put their names in a phonebook, or not have a phone/landline any longer?  It’s really just that simple and is why plain sampling is just dishonest and biased.

What further infuriates me is the fact that this person tapped for the position is a university professor at a liberal school and in a liberal state.  I would be hard pressed to believe he worked in the real world using statistics at a 9-5 job before becoming a professor on the subject.  On the other hand, I have been fortunate enough to have been taught by statistics professors, who have in fact held jobs at the same time as they have taught – many of which teach in an objective, if not right leaning way. 

Mr. Groves has also been charged with manipulating census data before in the 90′s, however, we are to trust that he won’t do the same thing again with even more power?

“As associate director of statistical design at the Census Bureau in the 1990s, Mr. Groves reportedly advocated a scheme to use computer analysis to manipulate Census data, rather than simply conducting an accurate count of the American people,” House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “That plan was ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1999, but we will have to watch closely to ensure the 2010 census is conducted without attempting similar statistical sleight of hand.”

Rep. Darrell Issa (Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and a GOP leader on the issue, said even before the announcement was official that he found it “an incredibly troubling selection that contradicts the administration’s assurances that the census process would not be used to advance an ulterior political agenda.”

Watch the census get rigged for political gain… illegals anyone?

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