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2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

BUT09 said:
Pretty sure I don't exist, according to the US Government. I don't live with my mother anymore, so she can't claim me. My apartment does have a separate address from the house it is in, but the former owner listed it as a business address. I never did a change-of-address because I couldn't do it online (you can't change a business address to a residential address online) and I'm too lazy to go to the post office.

And since I didn't get a census form, I'm figuring it means I slipped through the cracks and don't exist to the census bureau.
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The system isn't perfect, that's for sure.

You do have several options, however. You can call the Census Bureau's Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Center (1-866-872-6868) and let them know your address and the fact that you did not receive a form.

They can try to mail you one, or they can direct you to an in-person questionnaire assistance center. These are places where they will have a Census Bureau employee who's there to help people fill out their forms. They should also have some blank forms as well. The 866 number should be able to direct you to the nearest one, but you can also check out the Bureau's Take 10 map - it can also direct you to a QAC nearby.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

blockski said:
The system isn't perfect, that's for sure.

You do have several options, however. You can call the Census Bureau's Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Center (1-866-872-6868) and let them know your address and the fact that you did not receive a form.

They can try to mail you one, or they can direct you to an in-person questionnaire assistance center. These are places where they will have a Census Bureau employee who's there to help people fill out their forms. They should also have some blank forms as well. The 866 number should be able to direct you to the nearest one, but you can also check out the Bureau's Take 10 map - it can also direct you to a QAC nearby.
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It says you aren't supposed to call until April 12th in the FAQ section.

Anyone know why you can't fill it out online? It seems it would solve a lot of problems. If you can only enter an address once, it would prevent multiple copies of the same household.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

BUT09 said:
It says you aren't supposed to call until April 12th in the FAQ section.

Anyone know why you can't fill it out online? It seems it would solve a lot of problems. If you can only enter an address once, it would prevent multiple copies of the same household.
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You can call now, if you've received any piece of mail from the Census Bureau (reminder letters, etc) and get a new form. You can also call to try to find a QAC site near your house.

As for online submission, they don't have it for several reasons. First, these things had to be decided on years ago. In 2006, they didn't think they could pull it off and still meet their goals for security and accuracy. Just think of how much the internet has changed in those 4 years. That was more or less the decision point.

There's also the matter that because of the digital divide, not everyone has access to the internet to fill out the form - and it's impossible to know who those people are in advance. So, you'd still have to mail out all the forms. That means you don't save any money, and you'd have an even more likely chance of missing people entirely. Plus, you'd have a much harder time in getting rid of duplicate submissions (if someone returned both paper and online forms).

The problem with eliminating double counts is that the only way to really be sure about that is for the Census questions themselves to get more personal and intrusive - which then raises a whole series of questions about why you'd go online in the first place. If you go online to boost the response rate, yet doing so requires more intrusive questions that would lower the response rate - is it really a gain?

Anyway, I fully expect they'll have some sort of online option in 2020, but the technology and the process weren't robust enough to attempt it for this Census. Even so, I don't think it would be just going online and filling out a form, you'd likely get a letter in the mail with a code or something that gives you authorization to fill it out online or something...
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

blockski said:
You can call now, if you've received any piece of mail from the Census Bureau (reminder letters, etc) and get a new form. You can also call to try to find a QAC site near your house.
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I got absolutely nothing from them. I'll probably call about a QAC site.

The explanation about the online submissions makes sense. Since it's a colossal waste of paper either way, why not save the headache?
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

So if I don't fill out this census form, when can I expect a visit from the census people?
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

SiouxTechie said:
So if I don't fill out this census form, when can I expect a visit from the census people?
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Depends on the response rate in your area. Late April at the very earliest, but door to door enumeration will likely be going on through June.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

blockski said:
That's more of an issue with the decisions being made. You simply cannot convince me, however, that we'd make better decisions if we had worse data.
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But that's the wrong question to ask - do you work for the Census by any chance? ;)

The meaningful question is whether the decisions we make with the census data available are enough better than the decisions we'd make without the data to justify the cost of the census.

My gut feel still says yes, but then again, I really have no idea how much the census even costs, so my opinion is not worth too much. :)
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

LynahFan said:
But that's the wrong question to ask - do you work for the Census by any chance? ;)

The meaningful question is whether the decisions we make with the census data available are enough better than the decisions we'd make without the data to justify the cost of the census.

My gut feel still says yes, but then again, I really have no idea how much the census even costs, so my opinion is not worth too much. :)
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No, I don't work for the Census. I do work with their people and their data on a daily basis, however, so I'm way too immersed in their procedures.

Point taken on the cost-benefit just for the data collection. I would point out, however, that such a discussion ignores the Constitutional requirement to take the Census every 10 years.

The original question was if the ACS is asking things that are too intrusive. The ACS is likely the more cost-effective sampling model that would replace a census if budget were a concern - but the cost of administering that wouldn't seem to vary too much if you're asking about economics and demographics or if you're just asking people about their favorite color.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

I was curious why I never got one sent to me, so I started digging through the pile of junk mail last night, found it in there. I filled it out, accidentaly spilled some Jim Beam on in, hopefully they don't mind.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

BUT09 said:
Pretty sure I don't exist, according to the US Government. I don't live with my mother anymore, so she can't claim me. My apartment does have a separate address from the house it is in, but the former owner listed it as a business address. I never did a change-of-address because I couldn't do it online (you can't change a business address to a residential address online) and I'm too lazy to go to the post office.

And since I didn't get a census form, I'm figuring it means I slipped through the cracks and don't exist to the census bureau.
Click to expand...

I was in this boat 10 years ago - had just moved into a room over a store and wasn't discovered by the canvasser. I snagged a blank form off the door of a vacant shack nearby and sent it in.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

Received my "hey, fill out your census you dunderhead" postcard a week ago...but never received an actual census form (I moved just as the forms were going out.)

Picked a form up at the local mall, though. Done and done.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

That took all of a few minutes. Why did they have a detailed question of what kind of Hispanic you were (assuming you were)?
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

I guess our city is behind the averages again like last time :eek: ... there was a newspaper article about it. I guess the response rate in 2000 was 70% for our fair city vs 72% national average... and I guess it might be worse this time around.

How about everyone filling out the census gets a chance at a $100million lottery paid in 10 years... probally would get a better response rate.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

Tundra said:
I guess our city is behind the averages again like last time :eek: ... there was a newspaper article about it. I guess the response rate in 2000 was 70% for our fair city vs 72% national average... and I guess it might be worse this time around.

How about everyone filling out the census gets a chance at a $100million lottery paid in 10 years... probally would get a better response rate.
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Yeah, but it would probably show the US population to be around 8 billion people... ;)
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

I mailed mine in this morning. I figured that I would be tempting the fates if I sent it in earlier. :)
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

French Rage said:
That took all of a few minutes. Why did they have a detailed question of what kind of Hispanic you were (assuming you were)?
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IIRC, there was some issues in 2000 when all people of Spanish speaking areas were lumped into one single group. I know my wife didn't like that. And people from Brazil were also lumped in with that group, too- and they are not of Spanish origin.
 
Re: 2010 Census - Fill it out, send it back

JF_Gophers said:
I haven't filled out or returned mine yet. Mostly because I am lazy.
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This.

But I might actually do that today. I've had the form laying on my bed, and I don't need people coming to my door unannounced to ask me strange questions.
 
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