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.
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718 responses to “American Community Survey”
I was amazed to read all the stories and how I experienced all the above. My VOIP software took care of the phone calls. The letters were easy enough to ignore, the visits were some what annoying at first, but easy enough to also ignore. Unfortunitly my wife and I were painting in the gargage one Saturday and I joked that this would be the time one of those CB people show up. Sure enough the CB person walked right up into the garage like he owned the place, but my 120 lb Akita knew who owned the place. What a sight when a grown man almost wet himself. I told him that he was trespassing and that my boy doesn’t like strangers. He was informed to not to come back and that the CB doesn’t need to know how many flush toilets I have. He said that he would say that I did not wish to complete the survey. I thought that was it, but 2 weeks later on a lazy Sunday afternoon, there was pounding on my front door as well some idiot ringing my door bell. Not to know what to expect, I greeting the person as an uninvited guest with my .45 in hand. She saw the .45 and informed me that she was from the CB. I told her that I had already addressed the ACS. She informed me that the last person was only tempory and could not close out the “case”. I told her that I would be calling my congressman, Monday to report her name to which she just gave me a smirk. She told me that he requested to come to my house. I laughed because my congressman’s office is right around the corner. I asked if she read that silly document called the constitution and she basically just looked and laughed. She finally left when the boy needed to go out. I did call my congressman on Monday and informed him of her name and how she laughed at the constitution. I was informed that he has received several dozen complaints about the CB and ACS.
Hang tough! Remember Article I, Section 2, Clause 3. Don’t back down, you are not alone.
Robert, you’re one one of the lucky 2/3 who do not get the rep visits. The CB can’t afford to go to all the non-responders, so only 1/3 get them.
Well, it is the end of the third month and we have not had any visits to our home. I am wondering if they just gave up. Every time we are ready to go out we look to see if there is some one waiting for us in the bushes but we have not seen or heard from the CB for almost a month. We don’t know if this is the norm or are they getting ready to jump on us when we least expect it. Has any one been in this situation?
Personal visit #2 lasted less than 30 sec. The gentleman told me that he had heard that I was collecting their notices and cards and I said I was and I accepted his card for my collection. He said he was in the area investigating “crime cases” to which I laughed and said, “Oh, crime cases huh? Well, have a nice day!” …and off he went.
I can’t wait for round 3
Just received my ACS today. Un-freakin-believable! I, like so many of the bloggers before me, looked up the codes that the nice glossy pamphlet quoted that supposedly state that I am “required” to fill this privacy invading monstrosity out. Just as I suspected, not one mention of the legal requirement for me to fill it out, only the legal requirement for them to send it. I had already filled out (how many & how old) the short form of the census & mailed it in this summer. I was visited 4 times by census workers trying to bully me into answering the rest of the questions. I love it when they say “But it’s for the children”. I politely tell them that is why I am refusing to be bullied into answering any more questions. I’m standing up for my Constitutional rights so that my children will still have theirs. So it looks like I can look forward to more visits and from the sounds of it a few phone calls as well. I say, bring it on! I will not be intimidated by the likes of you!
God Bless…
JUST RECEIVED A LETTER FROM THE CB INFORMING ME I WAS ABOUT TO RECEIVE MY ACS SHORTLY.
THE LETTER INFORMED ME A RESPONSE WAS MANDATED BY LAW.
I CALLED THE CB TO FIND THE “LAW” CODES THAT WOULD SEND ME UP FOR A NON RESPONSE TO THE SURVEYS. THE LADY AT THE CB WAS NICE ABOUT THE WHOLE THING AND GAVE ME THE CODES INVOLVED. I INFORMED HER I HAD NO INTENTION OF RETURNING THE COMPLETED SURVEYS TO WHICH SHE INFORMED ME “OH THEY NEVER PROSECUTE ANYONE FOR THAT”. HOPE THE GAL DON’T LOSE HER JOB FOR THAT INFORMATION. I CAN SEE WHERE A PERSON COULD HAVE A LOT OF FUN WITH THIS SITUATION. LOTS OF POSSIBILITIES IN IT. LOVE TO DRIVE THEM NUTS.
Why? Because the enumeration is for the redistricting and the ACS is to make marketers and social scientists happy. The ACS questions use to be on the census long form. So your residence was chosen “randomly” along with 250,000 other lucky recipients who get the ACS every month.
Why would i receive an ACS after i had given the head count to a census taker? I received the acs about 2 months after my numbers were given to the census taker at the door. They have the numbers, what else then?
Sorry JoRingo. The CB field reps are taught to be persistent. When you refuse one, they send another, which is most likely the refusal specialist. The 31st is coming and the reps do have to move on to the next batch of refuse-nicks in Nov.
I had read enough to know that the CB doesn’t give up easily. The reps will spend the time to tire the respondent enough to get answers the the questions, which is why I didn’t want to waste my time talking to them.
I finally got a personal visit. I was able to convince the gentleman to leave within 8 minutes or so and my wife said that he wouldn’t be back. I was disappointed but agreed with her that I may have been too effective in my refusal to cooperate.
THEN I GOT A BUSINESS CARD LEFT ON MY DOOR!!
THEY HAVEN’T GIVEN UP!!
That’s awesome… cause I wasn’t done explaining how tight to roll it or how far up their asses they should cram it!