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”
Found the article easily, Jeanette. Guess you are more compuer savvy than you thought. Very well done. It’s good to know Rutherford is on the job. They are good people.
Good point, Cathy. Not that they will get anything from us. We are having far too much fun giving them nothing – not even the opportunity to write on their reports that we refused. On a voice mail, the rep said it would be much better for funding to get some answers rather than “no response” Better for them, maybe, not for us. It must not look too good for them to have a month to harass us and come up empty.
Great job, Jeanette!
Another citizen, the tactics haven’t changed. Getting you to answer some of the questions is a trick to get you to cooperate so they can slip in some questions that you will answer by mistake. And yes, every thing they do is bogus. The CB threatens us with laws which never should have passed and are prevented from going to court to be declared unconstitutional.
This survey is a product of government arrogance. We have a group of social scientist wanting to conduct their silly, meaningless studies and the political elites thinking that central planning is the answer to all our problems. Our local governments have let us down by allowing the feds to tell them that central planning is good and by the way here’s some money. Our state govs have not maintained their 10th amendment rights, to prevent the intrusion by the federal gov. Lastly, the voters have to look carefully at the candidates for office at all gov levels. We need to get all the supporters of the nanny state out of office.
Seems like they changed tactics. No home visits yesterday, but ten (count ’em) phone calls. One of the voice mails said that if we were uncomfortable with some of the questions we could skip them. Also said we could answer the questions anonymously if we wanted to. This shows that the initial statement that answers to all questions were mandatory is completely bogus! Waiting to see if their tactics change again over the weekend as we approach (thank God) the end of the month.
Thanks for all the support we’ve found in this forum.
I was able to get an article against ACS printed in our local newspaper where I’m an “Opinion Shaper.”
Sorry, I’m not very computer savvy, but if you google
Opinion Shaper: “Now that the census is over… or is it?”
I think it will come up.
Thanks to all (especially Cathy) for good information on resisting this travesty.
Great information on the blog. Makes it (almost) tolerable to put up with ACS people. We got the first form in late November. Phone calls started in December. Visits started in early February. Like others in this situation, I learned that the agent talked to at least two of our neighbors. He was here about six times last week. On Monday night he came up on the deck, pounded on the back door, then pounded on the window. Then he called on his cell phone from our deck and said he knew we were in the house. This was followed by ringing our doorbell. Of course, we ignored all of it.
Apparently we wore him down, because last night we got 3 calls from a different agent, which we ignored. Three more calls today spaced about five minutes apart. We put locks on the gates to the back yard so they can no longer access our deck or peer through the edges of the blinds. Will be SO glad when this is over!
Hates the Gov,
Hang in there. You’re almost done. The reps are persistent. The CB reps won’t go after your kids, so tell them not to worry. This always get worse before the end of the month because the reps panic. Expect an increase in visits next week and weekend. When it ends, it ends quickly.
Letters in December, then nothing in January because I don’t have a landline phone, and don’t answer numbers I don’t recognize.
Now February: a massive assault stopping at nothing to talk to me. Overnighted fedex letters, followed by phone calls to my cell which they probably got from one of my neighbors. I know the rep visited at least three of my neighbors, apparently one gave him my number and name.
What has been amazing is the lies and threats coming from them. They stop at nothing to get this information which really makes me wonder why they actually really do want this. The conspirator theorists nightmares have turned out to be true. I’ll never trust the government again and will never stop hating them.
The man staulking me now parks in a location as to see both my front and back door as I have evaded him out the back with a friends vehicle before. He knows what I am up to and instead of accepting defeat, he has begun what I call and feel is staulking. My kids worry that he might show up at school and harass them.
I know his address and if this goes beyond three months, I intend on staulking back.
I received my first ACS last Thursday. Let the fun begin.
On antiher note. If the Republicans are truly sincere about cutting sending in Washington, then the ACS should be one of the first programs to get cut. Let them no in no uncertain terms that this b.s. has to end now!
I’ll keep you posted on how things play out in the coming weeks and months ahead with the ACS.
Nearing the 31st of Jan. I recieved by survey last Oct. CB has been uping the ante. I have followed most the advice here with a blank survey and a copy of the “Legal way to get out of the ACS letter” enclosed and ready to go if needed. The CB was parked in my driveway for about 15 minutes next to my friend’s vehicle with an out of state plate on it. They hung out for about 40 minutes and put a big red tag on my garage door indicatein “a matter of importance to discuss”. This was a follow up to an earlier visit during the day. They really need to know if I can walk stairs, the number of toilets in my home and if I have hot water. I unplugged my land-line phone last night. Luckily it is only the “Butler” that answers with no clue as to name, number or address. I’ve been averaging about 2 calls per day now for the last 3 days. As I tried to explain to a panicked parent. For the regular enumeration Cenus there was only a 75% return rate. So the remaining 25% of the population has either been fined or jailed? Not really likely…..I live in a bankrupt state-they need every person left standing with a job to fund those gov’t pensions through income taxes. Just a few more days and I hope they get the hint. Thanks to everyone here for allowing me to stick to my guns.