The U.S. Census Bureau has been having some
operational problems, much involving the census
enumerators. Upon my observations and traveling in
several towns and cities while going about my own
business. I am positive that it is not only me that
notices these things, although apparently others don’t
initially say much about it.
To start, I have seen piles of census forms on top of
mailboxes in my building, including 8 copies in my
mailbox, (all with different census ID #s). When I travel,
I occasionally notice piles of such census forms in
places such as in garbage cans, on store counters, on
sidewalks, train stations, bus shelters, etc. (many forms
filled out, some are not, all with different census ID #s)
in local New Jersey towns, such as Newark, Metuchen,
New Brunswick, Linden, Elizabeth, Hazlet, Red Bank,
etc. and also in New York City. I can just imagine
where else this could be going on at, yet I can only
speak about my neck of the woods.
Often, l run into to people claiming to be enumerators
handling census forms. Some ask me what country I
am from. When I tell them that I was born and raised in
NYC (which is true) and I ask why, they give answers
such as “never mind”, “It’s not important”, “are you a
cop?” etc.
I have contacted the US Census Bureau by phone,
email and snail mail several times. Most phone
supervisor’s respond by admitting that the centers in
which their enumerators work out of don’t have a
screening process for hiring, nor do they keep records
on what these enumerators are doing. They simply
train them, give them smart phones and assignments.
All at taxpayer’s expense and resources.
All in all, there is nothing to show the reliability of these
enumerators in their work and they are not screened
for honesty and proper procedures of the work in which
they are assigned, leaving for a sloppy and inaccurate
result. One would imagine that this makes any training
questionable.
I have spoken to others about this matter, most saying
that there is nothing people can do fix these problems.
Some I have spoken to say they no longer trust them to
private information to the US Census Bureau. One
would have to think that these issues I am writing about
negate the whole purpose of the census and opens the
door for problems such as fraud, ID theft,
mismanagement of funds and congressional
misrepresentation.
I simply brought it to the agency’s attention. I didn’t not
keep exact times of events, nor did I exercise any effort
to establish “proof” of these matters. I didn’t initially
plan to stumble on all this as I did. But now that I have,
I found it feasible as a consumer to bring this mater to
their attention for further review. I am certain others
would agree with me, regardless of ideology. However,
the Department of Commerce (the mother agency of
the US Census Bureau) doesn’t seem to feel the same
way that I do when I had contacted them on after.
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