Did anyone else receive one of these? According to their web site, US Code Title 13, sections Section 141 and Section 193 your response is required by law.
In reality, those sections outline that The Secretary (who is presumably defined elsewhere) can take surveys as a part of their census process. It is Section 221 that requires you to respond:
Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided…
That’s just a crock.
Oh, sure, census information is useful and all that. It’s just the principal of it. I guess I’ll have to ask the nice lady who came to my door for some evidence that she is an authorized officer or employee of the Deparment of Commerce, or a bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of The Secretary.
Heck, I’d pay the $100 if it weren’t for Title 18, Section 3571 (allegedly Section 3559 as well, but that seems to deal with imprisonment and not monetary fines). With it on the books, the “not greater than $100” fine becomes “not greater than $5000” fine. That really blows.
Comments
718 responses to “American Community Survey”
Thanks, Cathy. I believe that the reason they can claim over 90% compliance is not because they get all the answers, but if they have identified the 5 main data points, it’s counted as complete. They could just look at my house and see it’s a 3-4 bedroom, count the cars in the driveway, the quality and age of both, and come up with a good estimate of the number of adults in the household. And with that info, make a pretty good guess of income. So even if I refuse, it will never be counted as a refusal.
I mentioned the ACS today in a group setting (ok a bar) and one of my friends had taken a temp job with the ’90 census. As a caseworker trying to get info from those that recieved the long form. He said it was very difficult, and that was before the concerns about identity theft. We agreed that people used to trust thier government more than they do now.
I think the 2010 census is going to be a hard one. The identity theft issue is the biggest factor. Followed by distrust of federal government in general.
Joe,
The interesting thing in all of this is that the CB has been testing the public’s response to privacy invasions for decades with each question which was added to the census long form. The data users have already published this material. They have published that the selection is not random and that the the data is skewed because of that. Data users want to study large families, hispanic families, Katrina evacuees, elderly migration, individuals with cronic ailments, and marital histories. The overall plan is to have every residence receive the ACS once every 5 years. So, yes, we’re all going to get this again unless the funding gets cut. The ACS was created for 2 reasons; public outrage with the long for after the 2000 census and the inability of the CB with limited staff to process the longforms it did receive fast enough for the data users. The CB makes our info available to companies which package and sell the info.
Lazarus, if you get a second field rep, that individual can be the CB’s refusal specialist. I chose to stay out of sight because I didn’t want them gathering any data points from me. The CB will consider the ACS to be completed it they know 5 data points like your sex, age, race, and marital status. Just looking at my residence would give them additional info. The field reps also record why a person does not comply so that new strategies can be developed to get compliance. Right now, the CB thinks that most nonresponders live out in the middle of nowhere, have guns, distrust the gov and value privacy. I believe that we nonresponders are a more diverse group than that.
Cathy, Lazarus,
Seems like all 3 of us have strong reason to believe that contrary to what the CB SAYS about their surveys being RANDOM, they actually in all probability are TARGETING specific households.
They CLAIM in the forms that the addressee got the survey as the address was RANDOMLY picked.
So they have absolutely NO PROBLEM LYING to all survey recipients? None whatsoever? Not really hard to imagine considering its all cooked up in DC!
It might be a good idea to collect information about how often readers of this blog have been sent surveys by CB in the past 3 cycles. If it is a substantial number, though statistically speaking the choice might be random, the probability of the same addresses getting picked for 3 cycles in a row for a large number of people would be very low. It could be chalked off to bad luck.
And as misery loves company, exchanging such notes is very comforting 🙂
Who said “once is happenstance, second time it coincidence, third time its enemy action” ? Surely all this sounds like it!
joe
I live in a very small community of a couple thousand people. An un-incorporated area without local government, except at the county and state level. No city counsel or anything like that, yet. I’m sure that the ACS will send a field rep to contact me eventually. My wife just bought me an upgraded cell phone with 4 gb memory that does everything. When the rep shows up I intend to be polite, take a picture of his ID, and then use the video while I tell him/her that they are trespassed from my property and ask them if they intend to comply. They will have to send yet another field rep if they want to continue harrassing me. I have discussed this with the sheriff, and they cannot stay after you tell them to leave. And if you insist that they not come back, they can be arrested. You must remain polite, but FIRM. The whole thing is an outrage and no one I have talked to locally has ever heard of it.
Inorder for the selection to be truely random, each residence needs to have an equal chance to be selected, which is not happening. The CB started by selecting places with a population larger than 65,000. In an effort to remain below the radar with the ACS in small towns, the CB will take 5 years to gather the data points it can gather in 1 year from a larger population. By not having a followup on all non-responding residences causes less randomness. All residences need to be treated the same way. Does anyone think that celebs get the ACS? I’ve only heard of one congressman getting the ACS and it was for a vacation property.
Lazarus, if you do get a field rep, I wonder if he/she will correct your address for the 2010 census. I not counting on mine being corrected. Mine had the wrong town.
An interesting note, the survey must not be as random as they say. Got another call from a woman at the Census today. When she tried to verifiy my address she had my current street address and an old RR box address from many years ago. You see, several years ago the rural route box numbers were replaced with numbered street address’ to help with the 911 system. No one has refered to this address that way for a long time. But they have it on file. The box numbers were not on any mailings they have sent here. But it’s in the file, along with who knows what.
Interesting to know that they have a file on this address, an old file, it wasn’t just pulled at random from a current address database. I refused to answer any questions and she told me it was mandatory. I started to tell her that the treat of a fine was bogus and she was very careful to point out that she had not threated or mentioned a fine. She said she would just mark the case as ‘refused’ and hung up. My case will probably get booted along to the next caseworker.
Joe, you’re right, it’s not random. The CB does have targeted households. The data users want to track the progress of the people they wish to study. The ACS info is used to identify the new targeted households. And just think, you’ll get the ACS again in 5 years. You won’t be fined. If you live in a town with less than 65,000 people, the CB reps will try harder to get you to comply, since smaller populations get fewer surveys making each completed survey more important. I had 2 different reps come to my residence. At the end of the month, they were gone. I did get a postal survey 2 months later. The fun thing was that my address was wrong on both surveys. I wonder if the address will be wrong on the 2010 census too.
sky,
Last 2 times, my wife let the person in (8 and 18 years ago 🙂 and that time (I think) the questions were less intrusive. Both times they were long forms.
The fact that this is the 3rd time I am getting the long form, even after I moved from my previous residence, leads me to believe that this is indeed NOT random, they TRACK who answered, and go after them – most probably assuming that the likelihood of getting another response might be pretty high. (My phone number has remained the same throughout the past 20 years – maybe that is how they track people who respond)
In this cycle I got the ACS form for the first time in Dec 07 OR Jan 08 – don’t remember cos I shredded it. I got another one in February I think which I shredded also. Then the phone messages started, and we simply stopped taking them. We have not responded to any VM messages.
Now one person has started visiting (1 visit so far), and leaves messages. I do not intend to answer or let her into my house. I intend to wait this one out and see what happens.
So IF a fine happens, it will be this time, last 2 time I complied.
joe
It has been more than 40 years since the Census Bureau has recomended that ANYONE be fined. The threat is a farce. The Census Bureau has no law enforcement capabilities, they have no authority to stay on your property after you ask them to leave. They would need to refer a case to the Dept of Justice for a fine. After the recent fiasco with the lap top computers that were to be used for the up coming 2010 census, they have egg on their faces, heads may roll. And they are not about to start issuing fines after 40 years and right before the BIG ONE in 2010. They are already screwing up and are going to stay very quiet. Just politely refuse and they won’t/can’t do anything about it.
I’m in the second month and getting phone messages about every 3rd day on the home recorder. Everyone uses cells and the home phone is rarely answered.
joe, I am curious as to whether or not you have ever been fined for not filling out the survey since you have received it 3 times. I am on my first and am now receiving the home visits, which I am avoiding. Just trying to stay a step ahead and figure out what to expect next…