Miss America Helps Launch 1990 Census

With an assist from Miss America Debbye Turner, Commerce Secretary Robert A. Mosbacher symbolically completed the first 1990 census form Monday, kicking off a $55-million campaign to encourage participation in the nation’s once-a-decade head count.

Mosbacher’s completed form was handed to a beaming Barbara Bryant, director of the Commerce Department’s Bureau of the Census and head of the $2.5-billion project.

Turner described herself as “a symbol hoping to motivate Americans” to fill out the questionnaire when it arrives in late March. She offered the support of the 50 state contestants in the Miss America Pageant as “census ambassadors” to raise awareness.

The department also unveiled a 54-day campaign that will feature radio and television public-service announcements in nearly a dozen languages and dialects. The aim is to make the 1990 census--the bicentennial count--the most complete ever. The promotional effort also includes use of gang members and Chinese fortune cookies containing the census message.

Mosbacher said the bureau expects to count about 250 million people. In past censuses, the bureau has been criticized--even brought to court--for failure to count large numbers of minorities and hard-to-reach portions of the population.

An accurate count is essential because congressional and state legislative districts are determined by population, and more than 20 states could gain or lose members in Congress as a result of the April 1 tally. Moreover, billions of dollars of federal and state grants--for hospitals, education, housing and other programs--are allocated on the basis of population as determined by the census.