For most of us, the census is over and half-forgotten. The U.S. Census bureau mailed forms; we filled them out -- a process that took me less than a minute -- and we mailed them back in by April 1.
Some of us absentmindedly set the form aside, and within a few weeks, we got a postcard gently reminding us to send it in.
When the deadline came, Michigan was ahead of most other states. Seventy-seven percent of us had mailed the forms in, five points better than the national average.
Then, however, the hard part began. The Constitution of the United States has always required the federal government to count the citizens every ten years. That first census found our young nation had about 3.9 million people, fewer than Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties combined do now.
The last census ten years ago found that for the first time we had more than three hundred million. We have developed computerized tools to estimate populations, but the census mandates an exact count. Back in the early days of the republic, census results were used primarily for determining how many seats each state received in the U.S. House of Representatives. That’s still an important function of the census, but it is far from the only one.
The final census numbers are also used to draw new state legislative districts. But they also determine how much money states and cities get for countless government programs.
The more people the census determines Michigan has, the better we will do. And that’s more important than ever. We lost a seat in Congress last time, possibly because our population was under-counted. We are likely to lose at least one and possibly two more next year, which would be devastating in terms of our ability to get what we need in Washington. A complete count is essential.
So since the end of April, thousands of enumerators have been going door to door, trying to find the estimated 48 million households that did not return a census form.
They’ve got till July 10 to do a job that in some cases may be downright dangerous. They have to go into neighborhoods that aren’t safe. They have to dodge pit bulls and maybe worse.
They have find people living behind dumpsters or who are on the lam. Some of the uncounted are just lazy. Some, however, are deliberately avoiding the census.
They fear the information will be given to the tax collectors or the police. None of that is true. The 2010 census has been greatly simplified. Robert Groves, the national census director, is the former director of the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center.
He says the census is now closer in form to the original 1790 census than it ever has been. Ten simple questions; that’s it.
The other night I had dinner with Dr. Karl Gregory, a retired Oakland University professor who is a special advisor to the census. He says he is pleasantly surprised by how well things are going to date, but stressed that the next three weeks will be critical.
So - if there’s anything you can do to help make someone count, please do. Try as they might, the enumerators never find all of us. And Michigan really needs to make this count for us this year.
Thanks for the pep talk, Jack!
-a local enumerator
Posted by: Ncuriel | May 28, 2010 at 11:04 AM