SALT LAKE CITY, USA - Utah will go to federal court Wednesday to argue that the Census Bureau overlooked more than 11,000 Mormons overseas on church missions last year, costing it a congressional seat.
``Our votes are being diluted by a selective count of overseas Americans,'' said Thomas Lee, a Brigham Young University law professor who will argue the case for Utah before three federal judges.
A complex allocation formula left Utah just 857 residents shy of gaining an extra congressional seat that went to North Carolina instead. Should Utah somehow win its argument, its congressional seat could come at North Carolina's expense.
Utah said the census also violates First Amendment guarantees by discriminating against members of a church, and it wants the Census Bureau to broaden the count of Americans temporarily living overseas.
The bureau counts only federal workers and military personnel, leaving out missionaries and private U.S. employees on overseas assignments. Lee also said the Census Bureau could subtract federal workers and military personnel from its count of all states' populations.
North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper and his spokesman did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday. Two of North Carolina's lawyers were on their way to Salt Lake City and couldn't be reached.
Cooper has defended the Census Bureau from the charge it denied Utah fair representation in Congress and wants the judges to throw out the suit.
U.S. House members on average represent 625,000 people. In Utah, each House member represents an average of 744,389 people.
With its large missionary population, Utah could gain an extra House seat even if the Census Bureau decided to count other states' missionaries from all religions. Lee said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints keeps meticulous records on its U.S. missionaries.
On the Net:
Census Bureau: http://www.census.gov
AP-NY-03-27-01 2047EST
Copyright 2001 The Associated Press.