The political importance of the census will be featured in a number of stories over the coming weeks and months.  Here, The Times has an editorial discussing how it prefers that prison populations be treated in the census.

Far too often, redistricting committees pad underpopulated districts by redrawing boundaries to include large prisons. This practice typically increases the political power of rural areas where prisons are built and diminishes the influence of the urban areas to which inmates eventually return.