AUGUSTA — Preliminary census data shows thousands of Mainers may not have been counted in last year's study. That could end up costing the state millions of dollars, census officials said. They estimate that between .96 and 1.4 percent of the national population wasn't counted. If those percentages are applied to Maine's census, then between 12,239 and 17,849 residents weren't counted. Because the federal government uses those figures to allocate aid to states for a wide range of programs — including Medicaid, highway aid, and enviornmenal programs —Maine could lose about $94 million, according to a 1999 federal General Accounting Office report. "There are a lot of state and local programs that are based on the numbers from the census," said Eric VonMagnus, the state census officer. "And whether the numbers are adjusted will have a major impact." Census officials expect to release more precise numbers next week. They are currently examining data to determined whether the numbers should be adjusted to more accurately reflect how many residents live in each state. Several large cities, including New York City and Los Angeles, have filed suit to make sure the final figures are adjusted to reflect the undercount of groups such as minorities and children. Those groups were significantly undercounted in the 1990 census. Census officials estimate about 12,000 people in Maine were not counted in the 1990 census. Richard Sherwood, a census expert in the Maine State Planning Office, said the most serious case of undercounting was in the 1970 census, when an estimated 26,000 to 40,000 were not counted. Problems that plagued census officers then still existed in 2000, Sherwood said. "You know people can be hard to find off in the north woods of Maine — one family here and the next one down the road 20 miles, and on a not very good road," he said. Arthur Dukakis, the regional director of the census, there will always be "a few people" who are missed.
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