Massachusetts. Census Division

The Census Division (or Division of the Census) was first mentioned as a unit within the state secretary's office in 1919, after St 1919, c 350, s 25 authorized the secretary of the Commonwealth to appoint a supervisor of the decennial census, responsible for collecting, compiling, and publishing census results. The agency name was not consistently used until the mid-1950s, however.

But long before 1919 the state secretary had been involved in census-taking activities. In 1837 the General Court authorized two censuses, in both cases stipulating the secretary's involvement: a population census to be used for allocating federal funds to towns in the wake of the dissolution of the United States Bank (St 1837, c 85); and a decennial census of "ratable polls" to be used for apportioning membership in the House of Representatives (St 1837, c 128) as required by Amendment Article 12 of the state constitution, ratified that same year. (Prior to 1837, censuses in Massachusetts, with few exceptions, were limited to the U.S. decennial censuses that commenced in 1790 under federal constitutional provision.) Thus was established the pattern for census taking in Massachusetts. Under the general guidelines of the Constitution's amending articles, each census, with a few exceptions, was authorized by an enabling act that further defined its scope. Censuses were loosely supervised by the state secretary, who was responsible for providing city and town officials with blank forms, for collecting returns, and for tabulating results. Enumeration itself was carried out by city and town officials.

After 1837 constitutional and statutory provisions further modified state census taking in Massachusetts. Amendment Article 13 changed the basis of representation from ratable polls to inhabitants and provided for state decennial censuses beginning in 1840. St 1855, c 439 mandated a decennial census at mid-decade, beginning in 1855, which had the effect of providing for a state census every five years. St 1857, c 60, however, abolished the earlier end-of-decade census, taken in 1840 and 1850, which had coincided with the federal one. Also in 1857 the scope of the census was changed to include an enumeration of legal voters to serve as the basis for determining representation, along with the census of inhabitants (Const Amend Arts 21-22). (A special census of legal voters was taken that year.) Decennial censuses of legal voters were used for determining legislative apportionment until 1970, when Amendment Article 92 once again established a decennial census of inhabitants as the basis for representation.

In 1874 responsibility for the decennial census was transferred to the Bureau of Statistics of Labor (St 1874, c 386), which was put in charge of the 1875 and later enumerations of population, as well as of the decennial census of industries, which had been required of the state secretary since 1865 (St 1865, c 146). (The agency was renamed the Bureau of Statistics in 1909.) Returns of census results, however, continued to be filed with the state secretary's office.

St 1919, c 350, s 25 returned sole responsibility for the decennial census to the secretary of the Commonwealth and authorized him to appoint a supervisor of the decennial census who would be responsible for collecting, compiling, and publishing census information. (Responsibility for industrial statistics was given to the successor to the Bureau of Statistics, the Division of Statistics in the new Department of Labor and Industries (St 1919, c 350, s 69)). St 1920, c 157 redesignated the supervisor as state census director. As had been the practice before 1875, the enumeration was carried out by city and town officials and returns were made to the secretary's office. St 1924, c 453 gave the secretary the authority to verify census information returned by the cities and towns and to make inspections of records if necessary.

Under current constitutional and statutory provisions, the state decennial census of inhabitants is conducted for the purpose of determining representative, senatorial, and councillor districts and as a basis for distributing state funds to cities and towns (Const Amend Art 101, as amended by Amend Art 109). MGLA c 9, s 7 provides for the enumeration of inhabitants to be made by city and town officials on forms supplied by the secretary's office, and for the state secretary to verify, correct, and compile census results for presentation to the legislature. As noted above, the latter activities take place in the secretary's Census Division, under the state census director.

In 1986 the state secretary for the first time exercised his statutory power by challenging returns from the City of Boston in the 1985 decennial census. The governor established a Decennial Census Commission to investigate. Among other things, the commission's report questioned the need for a state decennial census and on December 17, 1987 the General Court, meeting in constitutional convention, voted 180 to 6 to abolish the Census Division and do away with its functions. If the legislature again so votes in constitutional convention prior to July 1, 1990, the question will then appear on the November 1990 state election ballot. If it is approved, the division will be abolished as soon as the official tally of votes is announced by the governor in early December 1990.

From the description of Agency history record. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145429273