Answer :
According to the United States Constitution, the federal census is used to determine the 3. apportionment of members in the House of Representatives. Unlike the Senate, which allocates an equal number of two Senators to each state, the House of Representatives is made up of members who represent districts. These districts are ideally made up of equal populations, a number that can change decade to decade. Since the census shows how many people live where, it is used to determine the population of representative districts. If a lot of people move to an area, odds are they will gain a seat in the House; however, that means a lot of people left a different area, which means the area they left would likely lose a seat in the House.
Correct answer: (3) Apportionment of members in the House of Representatives.
Explanation:
There are 435 members in the House of Representatives in Congress. That number has been set at that level since 1929. The number of representatives per state is adjusted after each census, which is conducted every 10 years. The US Constitution (Article 1, Section 2), says: "Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union."
Additional detail:
The number of electoral votes each state has in the Electoral College (for presidential elections) is also determined by the federal census. Electoral College votes are aligned with the size of a state's overall Congressional representation, so the number of electoral votes each state gets (of the 538 total electoral votes) is recalculated every ten years, based on the most recent US Census data.
