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CARBONDALE — The U.S. government’s massive effort to count every person in the country won’t officially begin until next spring. But regional officials have already been meeting for months to strategize ways to encourage Southern Illinoisans to participate.

The region is home to a number of people who have been traditionally more difficult to count: minorities, college students, rural people and low-income households.

An accurate count is important for the region, officials say.

“The stakes are big on the political front because the count drives the number of representatives in the U.S. House, as well as the number of electoral college votes that Illinois receives,” said John Jackson, a visiting professor with the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Illinois is expected to lose one seat in the U.S. House, and possibly two. That weakens the state’s influence in Congress, and could mean even larger districts for downstate representatives. The census count also drives the drawing of new legislative districts for the state House and Senate. And if cities currently large enough to receive automatic home-rule status dip below 25,000 people, they’ll have to seek the permission of voters to continue to have broad authority to raise taxes and issue debt.