The U.S. Census

Can I just rant for a minute? Census forms were mailed, but I never got one in the mail. In the lobby of my building was a box with census forms in English, Spanish and then a smaller box with several other languages (one was Russian, one had Chinese or Japanese characters and I didn't recognize the others). So I took an English language one, completed it and put it in the mail. A few days later a man came and delivered more English language forms because we were out. The box was there for a couple of weeks but it disappeared over the weekend.

I was doing supper dishes today when a census bureau representative knocked on my door. I told her I had mailed mine in, but she said that due to a US Postal Service error, my entire building was missed and she would need to collect my information again, along with everyone in the building. She had talked to the association board President who told her she is going to need speaker(s) of Polish, Serbian, Croatian in order to get everyone in our complex in their languages, and a couple of people who have already left for summer vacation homes.

Here are my rants - why do I even have to fill it out at all; wouldn't it have been cleaner for me to submit the info online? (but that was not an option) Could they not have just gotten it from my income tax filing - and loads of other people's? Now that I've sent it in AND my information was taken manually, will I be counted twice? The census bureau representative was using forms and a pencil - what a pain! I wonder why she doesn't have a laptop or one of those little computers with a wand like the FedEx and UPS drivers have. And why was my entire complex - three buildings, total 144 units - missed when the census forms were delivered? The Census Bureau and the USPS had a disconnection on that. This is the U.S. Government, but the way they're going about this feels so antiquated to me, I wonder how they will get an accurate census count.

Thank you for letting me rant,
elyse

The Census mailed notices to all addresses they had in their database. It all depends on how old their database is whether your address was even in it at all.

Being that thousands of new addresses are added to the US database monthly, it becomes a bear to manage.

The Office of the Census is having huge issues with their database software, and I sincerely doubt the issue lies with the US Post office (Much as I despise USPS management).

My dad is working as a census taker. It IS a pain for them not to have laptops, and to have to use forms and pencils, etc. I don't know why the govt. didn't provide the workers with laptops. Oh wait, I do know... they didn't want to go further in debt.

I'm sorry it's a pain for you to have been surveyed twice. I am, however, thankful that my dad is able to do the census work because he's been looking for employment for TWO YEARS and this is the only thing he was able to get. Thank GOD for small favors.

The reason they have to use forms and pencils is that they are required to retain hardcopies of the forms.

Electronic files can be manipulated without a trace.

The same cannot be said of a harcopy form, editing and changes are easy to spot.

This is a similar reason why my company uses paper notebooks; attempts at editing are plain.

Thank you, everybody for clarifying. The census representative is coming back to my building today, later in the day so she can get people she missed yesterday.

I completely understand your frustration at having to fill in the same form twice, but as a family historian, I just can't over-emphasise the importance of good census information. ;) And to be able to see your own ancestor's (or their sibling's) handwriting on the census form is priceless. If the census enumerators would take it, I would encourage you to write a little essay about your life right now and attach it to the form. Future generations will love you for it! :D

make absolutely sure that anyone claiming to be a census worker has the proper ID. Scammers are going nuts this time around, even going as far as to mail out fake forms that send your private info back to them.

The fact that your entire building was "missed" sounds very suspicious to me, especially since I doubt everyone mailed their forms in at the same time. Post Office is far from perfect but c'mon that many forms, likely sent in over a period of time?

Be very careful! In fact a phone call to the Census board confirming that they are sending somebody out wouldn't hurt.