A surprising fact about the tallying of the twelfth federal census.
“When the first returns from the census enumerators are in, the great work of counting will begin. It will interest most to know that the work of counting will be done by machinery so far as possible. A machine will count as many as 900,000 names a day. Briefly, the system is to punch holes opposite to the various questions, the position of the hole determining the fact of the person named on the card being black or white, married or single. The machine does the counting by the perforated hole permitting the card to slip into its right place in the mechanism. The machine will even correct errors. For instance, if a married person is set down on the card as being 3 years of age, the machine refuses to pass any such absurd statement, and will call attention to the fact of something being amiss.”
—Palo Pinto County Star (Palo Pinto, Tex.), Fri., 8 June 1900, quoting Pecan Valley News.