Since early May, U.S. Census takers have been visiting homes across America, as part of a Nonresponse Follow-up. They’ve probably visited quite a few homes in our area by now, and their work may continue through July (nationally, at least). I’ve written about the census before, and have a link in support of this effort on the left side of this website.
(See, Wisconsin State Journal: Local [Dane County] Officials Concerned Hispanic Immigrants Will Avoid Census: “Although civil libertarians often oppose some of the questions as too intrusive, I support the efforts of the census for Whitewater, particularly.”)
The Census Bureau’s issued a release with information about the visits of census takers. In every case, census takers should be greeted respectfully and cooperatively.
Here’s information the Bureau has included in a recent press release:
The Census Bureau is required by the U.S. Constitution to count everyone living in this country, regardless of immigration or citizenship status.
Over 130 million households across the nation received a census form in March 2010.
Replacement forms were mailed to many households starting April 1, 2010.
The Nonresponse Follow-up (NRFU) operation is conducted in areas where 2010 census forms were mailed through the U.S. Postal Service or were hand-delivered by census employees. In both situations, residents were asked to fill out and return the forms by mail. If the Census Bureau does not receive a completed form from a residence by the end of the Mail out/Mail back period, a census taker will visit that address to take a count in-person.
1. The Mail out/Mail back period ends in late April, with NRFU operations launching May 1, 2010.
2. It is estimated that census workers will have to visit about 47.2 million homes during NRFU operations.
3. During peak operations, Local Census Offices will employ about 650,000 temporary census workers.
4. All NRFU production is scheduled to end no later than July 10, 2010.
5. Census takers must present an ID badge that contains a Department of Commerce watermark. The census taker may also be carrying a bag with a Census Bureau logo. If asked, the census taker will provide you with supervisor contact information and/or the Local Census Office phone number for verification. The census taker will only ask you the questions that appear on the census form. Census takers will not ask you for your social security number, bank account number, or credit card number.
6. Each census taker will have a flashcard containing a sentence about the 2010 Census written in approximately 50 languages. If a resident does not speak English, the census taker shows the flashcard to allow the resident to point to the language he/she speaks. A census crew leader will then reassign that address to a person who speaks that language.
7. Census takers will visit each address up to three times and may try to telephone up to three times. If a resident does not answer, the census taker will leave a door hanger with a number the resident can call to schedule an interview time. If contact is made by phone, the census worker will conduct the interview with the household member.
More information about the federal census is available at www.2010census.gov