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”
We are also being harassed by a census worker, who has now resorted to stopping by every day, weekends included, and well into the evening. Complaining to the CB does not appear to be effective – should we instead be contacting the police?
Hang in Andrea. you are in the last part of the 90 day cycle. It will be over by the 27th of dec. The CB is sensitive to being accused of harassment, so your field rep should not be visiting more than 3 times.
I have had a women stalking me, trying to get her foot into my private home and find out every personal detail of my life, too.- she has been here twice. The first time I told her I would not take a valuable 1-2 hours of my free time to answer ANY personal questions about me or my family and NOT to come back. I called the number on the card she gave me and told them my name and address and how I felt about this outrageous tactic and the misuse of MY tax dollars! Quess what? The woman was sitting in her car at the end of my cultisac waiting for me to drive home, and was right on top of me as soon as I shut the front door.
I told her if they want to mail me an anonymous questionnaire I’d fill out whatever I felt was not an invasion of my privacy – namely how many people live here and ages etc. ONLY.
I don’t know if she’ll be back, but now I am actually paranoid and don’t want leave or answer my door. Isn’t stalking illegal????
I have been unable to obtain medical/health insurance. Do you really think I am going to reveal ANY of my personal health issues with a stranger or anyone unnecessarily??
I am definitely going to write to many people about this. I feel like I am suddenly living in Nazi communist country and not the US where our freedom of speach and privacy is our right!
I have had a women stalking me, trying to get her foot into my private home and find out every personal detail of my life, too.- she has been here twice. The first time I told her I would not take a valuable 1-2 hours of my free time to answer ANY personal questions about me or my family and NOT to come back. I called the number on the card she gave me and told them my name and address and how I felt about this outrageous tactic and the misuse of MY tax dollars! Quess what? The woman was sitting in her car at the end of my cultisac waiting for me to drive home, and was right on top of me as soon as I shut the front door.
I told her if they want to mail me an anonymous questionnaire I’d fill out whatever I felt was not an invasion of my privacy – namely how many people live here and ages etc. ONLY.
I don’t know if she’ll be back, but now I am actually paranoid and don’t want leave or answer my door. Isn’t stalking illegal????
I have been unable to obtain medical/health insurance. Do you really think I am going to reveal ANY of my personal health issues with a stranger or anyone unnecessarily??
I am definitely going to write to many people about this. I feel like I am suddenly living in Nazi communist country and not the US where our freedom of speach and privacy is our right!
Forget the title 13 stuff, the census has not fined anyone and will not fine them. You can ignore the survey. If you have received the survey, you have entered the 90 day harassment cycle provided by the census. The first 30 days involves mailing the survey and reminder cards. The 2nd 30 days, various telemarketers claiming to be the CB will call to verify who you are and try to get you to respond to the survey questions. The last 30 days are the field rep visits ( only 1/3 of the non-responders will get a visit). When I started getting calls, I disconnected my phone. I have answered nothing. World Net Daily has a recent article about the ACS along with some prior articles. There are lots of outraged people out there on various blogs. Check out the operations plan on the CB website. It covers the whole harassment plan.
the ACS has changed the info on their FAQ sheet to say that the US code title 13 as changed by title 18- imposes a penalty for not responding to the survey. But, on their website, it still says title 13 ss 221 imposes the penalty.
Does anyone know what that means, I cant find anything in title 18 about this. GRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Lorrie –
None whatsoever. But I would suggest, based on the anecdotal evidence here, that you may be better off just trying to avoid it. You may end up simply not having to pay. Of course, that assumes that you have the stomach for it, which may not be the case. 🙂
Is there any reason I cant just say, fine me the $100 and leave me alone?
“BUSH America” – Just remember this whole ACS thing started in 1996 under the CLINTONS. ACS type questions were tested on small groups and in the 2000 census. Don’t try to put the blame on one party. ALL PARTIES are evil and power hungry. Those in power will do whatever it takes to stay in power. Quit thinking so narrowly and see the big picture.
I went this the whole situation with ACS in summer of 2003. I had just moved to my new residence so I know nothing about any survey. The woman that came to my door told me it did not matter – I had to fill out survey as I now lived at address. She was so nasty about it that I promptly refused to do so, she then left some threatening literature at my door, which I threw in the trash. She showed up once again a few days later and told me they HAD to know where I was spending my nights – I couldn’t believe it – I told her it was none of her business and then slammed the door in her face. She, of course, showed up again and as soon as I saw her I slammed door in her face. She stood outside my door for close to twenty minutes screaming at me through my front door saying it was illegal for me to not answer her questions.
I called the police but she was gone by the time they arrived. They told me to call them again if she ever showed up again. They told me she had NO right to harass me or cause any type of disturbance at my residence.
After that extremely unpleasent experience, I did contact the main U.S. Bureau of Statistus number that was listed on her card to complain. Her supervisor was even worse than the agent, she told me I was required to answer questions for survery and then told me she got my phone number from caller i.d. and was going to give my number to agent that had been harassing me at my home. Up until that point, I had not gotten any calls at my residence as my phone number was unlisted.
After that, I had to pay to get my phone number changed to stop calls from ACS. Amazingly though, I never heard from ACS again. I thought it was over.
Four years later, I get home form work, and there is thunderous knocking on my door, I thought is was my neighbors children as they like to knock on door and then hide sometimes. I didn’t answer. I went out later and noticed there was a letter and card from, you guessed it, ACS about a health care survey. I don’t recall having gotten anything in the mail from them, but I genearally throw out anything that looks like junk mail. I was more than a little stunned, this is twice in four years I have been RANDOMELY selected for this by ACS.
Thins have changed for me with within the last four years, I am now quite ill with Multiple Sclerosis and on average, I need 10-12 hours of sleep per night to be able to get through the next day. I suppose when I get home tonight from work, there will be this lady from ACS waiting for me. I’m just gonna tell her to ‘bite me’ and if she knocks on the door, I will put on my IPOD headphones and ignore her. I know from the last time that they will NOT fine you for not answering their questions. Their threats are truly hollow. I will set my house alarm and if she keeps knocking, she will set off the alarm for motion and the police will show up in a few minutes. Hopefully this will quickly dissuade this vile loathsome woman. This is the reality of BUSH America, harassing innocent citizens without a shred of compassion to obtain information for profiling. I believe I was chosen out for this survey as I am disabled and they perhaps see me, most incorrectly, as an easy target.
To those of you that are worried that you will be fined, from my experience, it is just a threat and nothing more. They will be ignored like the last time until they go away. That would be my advice for anyone having to deal with this NAZI brigade.