Census Day 2010 is less than five months away and the U.S. Census Bureau is taking an easier approach to gathering information this year by offering a 10-minute, 10-question survey to gather the information needed.
A group of community members and community leaders met Tuesday morning to discuss the 2010 Census campaign. The census is taken every 10 years and is required by the U.S. Constitution. The first census was taken in 1790 to determine the number of seats each state would have in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Michael Aumack, partnership specialist with the U.S. Census Bureau, spoke Tuesday morning to potential local census partners who will help spread the message about the upcoming census count.
Aumack said this is the nation’s census.
“This shouldn’t be a political issue at all,” Aumack said. “This is not Obama’s census, it’s not the administration’s census. It’s all of our census.”
The census count is designed to count every living person in the country including U.S citizens and non-U.S. citizens, Aumack said.
“Even if people aren’t documented, they are still using our health care, our roads, our infrastructure,” Aumack explained.
A lot rides on the census count including more than $300 billion in funding to states and communities, which is, in part, based on census data. The count affects federal grant funding from the departments of agriculture, education, health and human services, housing and urban development, justice and labor. Those departments serve as the umbrella for many federally supported programs. The count also affects regional planning and congressional redistricting and provides economic information for business and new development.
The 2010 census is one of the shortest forms in history, Aumack said. It has only 10 questions and takes about 10 minutes to complete. The form asks name, age/date of birth, gender, race, ethnicity, household relationship and tenure (own or rent).
Questionnaires will be either mailed or hand-delivered to households. Households are asked to complete and mail back their questionnaire when they receive it. Those who do not return the questionnaire will be mailed another one. If they still do not fill it out, an in-person count by a census worker will be taken.
Aumack said information taken by the census is safe and will be not shared. Title 13 of the U.S. Code protects information and only authorized Census Bureau employees can see personal identifiable information. The data is only for statistical purposes.
“No authority can obtain personal identifiable data from the Census Bureau,” according to a pamphlet handed out on Tuesday. “The airtight law applies to the White House, U.S. Supreme Court, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, police, military and welfare agencies.”
Aumack said Be Counted sites and questionnaire assistance sites will be set up around the country and locally to assist those in filling out their census forms. Forms will be available in several languages and also for the vision impaired.
For more information on the 2010 census count, go to www.census.gov/2010census or call (800) 728-4748.
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