The Census Bureau has begun its massive follow-up effort with the nearly 48 million – out of 178 million – households that did not return their census forms, and cooperation with its 600,000 enumerators tasked with contacting non-responders is critical to a successful count, GAO told a House census panel recently.
Based on workload and staffing levels, the bureau appears to be well positioned to implement the follow up and has been meeting expected performance goals, according to GAO-10-665T.
It said that with respect to the mail-back response rate, the Bureau expected a level of between 59 percent and 65 percent, and received 63.2 percent, but could encounter challenges in certain areas and that the reliability of a computer system needed to administer non-response follow-up is an open question.
Participation in the census has decade-long implications for individuals, communities, and states and is used, for example, to apportion House seats.
Political groups and others have tried to take advantage of the rollout by sending direct mail with the word "census" on it to encourage people to read it – prompting the House to pass legislation to prevent non-official Census mail from carrying the word "census" on the materials mailed through USPS.
The House subsequently passed follow up legislation to clarify that the word "census" cannot be visible on mail sent through USPS in response to an RNC fundraising appeal featuring the word "census" through a plastic window.
