What if you keep ignoring a Census worker?

nothing

“The U.S. government can fine you as much as $100 for ignoring the 2010 Census questionnaire that landed in your mailbox this week. Lying on the form could mean as much as a $500 fine, according to law.

But U.S. Census Bureau representatives said the fines are a last, rarely enforced resort. The real cost of ignoring the form is in tax dollars spent sending Census workers to your door to get your information the hard way and federal cash that won’t be coming to your state, county or town if you aren’t counted.

“There are $400 billion in federal funds that are allocated every year using Census data. This is money that goes to our schools, our hospitals, roads and infrastructure. This money goes toward social services,” said Pam Page-Bellis, Census representative for the region including Florida. “If we don’t get a good count, we don’t get our fair share.””

According to abc

I hear nothing really hap [redacted]

They will visit multiple times, and they might knock on your neighbor’s door and ask them about your household.

It’s not many questions, and 9 out of the 10 are information that’s pretty much publicly available elsewhere. The only one that stuck in my craw was the last one in which they ask whether you rent, mortgage or own your domicile free and clear. I wouldn’t have answered that one had I not been lulled by the previous 9 questions.

They are only supposed to come to the door if you did not send in the form. I sent in the form and they have knocked on my door several times. Am I really surprised?

If they know that they can fine you why don’t they just count that as a person.

@simone54
It has to be precise and proper. If you gave the census people the power to just say “Oh that guy obviously lives there, I will count him without his verification.”, you would open the door to them making up numbers, counting fictitious and dead people, making up numbers about how many live in a household, etc, so they can get more federal money for their state. And do not think they would not do that.

> I thought the Census was to count the number of people. I’m a little
> uncomfortable revealing my race.

Then you probably should have sent back the form.

Why not just do it?
It only takes like ten minutes.

@perspicacious I keep waiting for them to show up here, even though I filled out the form and mailed it right away. They sent two additional forms to this address, both of them with apartment numbers. There are no apartments here, just our single-family home. I called the phone number on the form to let them know about the mistake so they could avoid sending someone and some some time/money. The guy I spoke to told me someone would come over anyway. Their system doesn’t seem terribly efficient.

Generally, people who do not answer a knock at their door have something to hide. you have been given ample notices that its a Census Taker and not a criminal. so, why are you resisiting?

You are correct, the job of the Census Taker is to count people. you cannot be counted, if you continue to ignore their knock at your door. your non-compliance will most likely send a red flag to the government and an investigation of you and your household may occur.

Eventually, the census worker will just ask your neighbor.

Contact the census worker via phone (they leave their number on the slip) and tell them you don’t want to reveal your race. Problem solved.

The census is really there to help you. It helps determine funding and how many people represent you politically.

Why are you reluctant to reveal your race? Would you feel okay about fudging that particular answer?

@susanc You bring up an interesting point.The census reports that race is a self-identified, self-reported social and cultural concept. This means you are allowed to call yourself any race you want to associate yourself with. Go ahead and get in touch with your American Indian side. It has nothing to do with dna or ancestors according to the census.

To illustrate this, one of my professors is a black man who was sent to fight in Korea. He thought if he identified himself on his deployment forms as black he would get a crappy job. So he consulted the law and found that he was legally allowed to mark ‘White’.
In the end he said it didn’t matter much, just about every job sucked.

Even residents that are here illegally are protected from any repercussions that could result from the answers they give on the census form. If legal action was taken against anyone that has filled out the form, you can be sure as shit we’d hear about it. Speaking as someone that has both latino and caucasian blood, I still feel uncomfortable answering any question concerning my ‘race’, but ultimately I don’t think the government gives a shit either way. We’re just a bunch of numbers to them.

yeah, we filled out the form as soon as we got it and a census taker still visited the house right when i was outside in the backyard in my boxers trying to figure out what the hell is going on with my central air.

found some shorts somewhere and it took like 10 minutes to answer basic questions about who lives here and what nationality.

just go ahead and answer the questions and get it over with. it helps the government help you by allocating things where things need to be. more kids in the neighborhood? hey maybe we should grant them a park around here or something with all the bells and whistles. that’s generally how it works…

I don’t think you should be worried; they can’t do anything to you based on your census answers.

I had already done mine and mailed it in, but as I learned, the census worker would not be ignored. He kept coming back a few times daily and left a bunch of messages. He finally got me in the middle of the day and even though I had filled it out on paper, he wanted my answers anyway. I wonder if they’re incentivized for the number of responses they get?

@figbash No, they aren’t. Some of the people who sent it in later than others didn’t make it in the computer as counted when the lists were printed. Census workers are paid hourly.