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”
File under – close enough for government work:
The Brooklyn census field office has fired 2 supervisors for filing out 10,000 household surveys (ACS??) themselves by using data bases rather than visiting the non-responders. Just another way to manipulate the numbers and lie about the response rate. When refusing turns out to not be refusing. It is way passed the time to defund the census bureau. It has no business collecting data through household surveys.
It funny, the U.S. tries to intimidate us to register for census. what they don’t tell you is that in 1941-1945, they used census data to round up all the japanese families, and put them in “camp” I ain’t gonna register for something that might get me “ethic cleanse” Up yours U.S. goverment
I didn’t even return the two ACSs and been waiting for whatever consequences, but nothing yet. I only have the cell phone. Last week I read Dear Abby and there’s a census worker asking Abby to help in convincing the public to comply. HeHeHe….
I find it entertaining that when the Constitution requires a population count, the Census trots out the most inexperienced personnel while reserving the more trained individuals to harass the public with unconstitutional surveys. Apparently it is more important to invade privacy than to redistrict for accurate representation. The CB needs to be defunded until priorities are corrected.
Just hung up on another ACS worker, this time it was the Maryland branch, last time was Arizona. This is the second refusal I’ve given over the phone, I told her not to call again, she said that she can’t stop the calls, my number will continue to show up in their system until I cooperate. Whatever, I’m a little too informed to fall for that one.
We haven’t received a telephone call for several weeks and there hasn’t been any knocks on our door from the Census Bureau for the Amercian Community Survey. There also hasn’t been any form of mail correspondence either.
The first ACS form was shredded. They sent a second one which we did not respond to either. We did not answer the telephone calls which averaged two to three calls per week including Sundays and during the evening telling us to return the telephone call with a case number which they gave over the telephone. I think the best advice is to completely ignore the ACS. They are sending an average of 250,000 of these surveys monthly to American citizens to collect data!
If by chance, someone knocks on the door, I will tell them the ACS is a violation against the U.S. Constitution and ask them to leave. This whole thing is a waste of taxpayer dollars. We recently had a local census worker arrested on felony drug charge, so this goes to show you that background investigations are not being conducted carefully including employee drug testing.
Do not let the census worker into your home which would be a very risky propostition. If the worker appears threatening then call 911 and report them by giving a complete physical description including their vehicle description. Make sure you talk to your neighbors and ask them not to give out information on you or your family. Tell your neighbor to contact you if someone is asking personal information regarding you or your family. This is specific for your privacy!
Stand firm on your constitutional rights and your privacy. “Don’t tread on me!”
I got the ACS a few years ago and posted about it here. (Ed June 28, 2008)
I just wanted to mention that the ACS really backfired for the Census Bureau in my case. When I got the ACS, I learned a lot about the census and as a result only answered as required by the constitution in 2010 census. I’ve gotten calls from the CB indicating they just want to count me (which is hilarious since that is the ONLY information I gave them).
They won’t get anything else from me either. Had I never received the ACS in 2008, I probably would have responded in full for the 2010 census.
I’ve had my name removed from zabasearch.com and have taken my name off whitepages.com (easy to do if you register). When I search for myself on Google, I get nothing…well, other people with my name, but not me! I don’t trust the woman not to check out anything that might be in my mailbox or any packages which might be left on my front porch. So she might get my name, but there’s only 2 neighbors who have my phone number…one is home as seldom as I am and the other is very good at “knowing nothing.”
I’m hoping she’ll give up since she’s not having much luck.
Ellie,
After I told the census worker to put me on the Refusal List I didn’t get any more visits for the ACS.
Cathy,
I got a business card from the census supervisor, she left it in my door on a visit before I told her to put me on the list. I used Google Earth to check her out. She lived only 15 minutes away in a trailer park. Nice little garden. I love Google Earth.
Also Cathy, the census workers ARE authorized to ask your neighbors questions about you. The neighbor has to be at least 16 years of age. Nice, huh?
Sign me,
Resident Apt. 1
The ACS field reps are not the same folks that are hired for the 2010 census. The field reps are the permanent census employees who have had more extensive training. They are connected with a regional census office. You could get someone who has to travel a hour to get to you.
If the rep is someone you know, you might be able to talk sensibly to her. On the other hand, she could use what she knows about you and fill out as many questions as she can. You could tell her that the ACS is a violation of the 10th Amendment and you will not be providing any answers. Just keep repeating that line until she is discouraged.
The CB will count a form completed with as few as 5 questions answered. The ACS reps are not supposed to bother the neighbors, since the info may not be correct, but the 2010 census people can consult with the neighbors to get short form answers.