Diary of a Census Enumerator

The actual Enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct.

Trump is trying to screw the census as with many other things. By a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court held that the attempt to include a question regarding citizenship was deemed illegitimate on agency law grounds. The Constitution -- both Art. I and the Fourteenth Amendment -- speaks of counting, "enumerating," persons. Not citizens. Evidence came out that the attempt to include a citizenship question was tied to a partisan rationale. Trump then shifted to trying to use only citizen information (obtained by other means) to provide the information used to apportion Congress. This is still in the courts. 

The citizenship question attempt failed, in part because the final decision came too late for the Trump Administration to try again, but still probably poisoned the well some. People already are wary about taking part in the census for a range of reasons, from laziness to privacy concerns. The push to include citizenship questions, which particularly has racial implications since certain non-citizens get particular negative attention, did not suddenly disappear as a concern because of a Supreme Court decision. 

Many, not just newcomers, are not too familiar with the overall concept, which for quite some time also included a chance to collect a range of other information. The basic information this time being age, sex (only "male" or "female"), race, ethnicity, family relations (marital and otherwise) and home/rental information (including mortgage). There are also separate more detailed questionnaires. 

Each household traditionally fills out a census questionnaire with the information tied to April 1st. There was a delay this year given the Big V so follow-up (including in person visits by "enumerators") continued over the summer. Thus, the greater sightings of people with census bags and people ringing bells, including looking for information for neighbors ("proxy" attempts). The original plan was to finish at the end of October. The Trump Administration decided to end a month early, but was blocked by court decision. 

The basic purpose of the census is to count the number of people (again, not citizens; even slaves were counted as "persons," if counted three for every fine) to determine congressional representation. The direct tax aspect never really amounted to much. The census also provides information to determine the needs of different areas, thus all those other questions. For instance, knowing how many people are in such and such an area provides a sense of how to apportion not just representatives but goods and services. And, the specifics -- such as how many have kids or are senior citizens -- spells out needs as well. The count is never going to be perfect, but best to try to make it as good as possible to know how to serve the nation.

I have a special concern here since I am a census enumerator, part of the NRFU (non-response follow-up) campaign. I have such a census bag and smartphone to input information obtained from people who did not fill out a census. We are given a daily "case list" of addresses (not names) to obtain census information for with an obligation to look for neighbors that have knowledge instead if the actual "respondents" are not available or for some reason do not want to provide information. A respondent not available or who will not respond for some reason (including a language problem) are due to get a little "notice of visit" slip. We were given a bonus to encourage us to finish by September 30th. 

A basic problem is that many said they filled out a questionnaire online -- too many to all be lying -- and for some reason it doesn't show up. Many simply have no desire to do so again. Also, quite often people are not home -- the day is 9AM-9PM (8 hours maximum, forty hours a week, though a few overtime authorizations) and rather regularly no one was home. And, even next door neighbors refused to admit they knew basic information about the people. A certain type of person might be convincing here but quite honestly that is not quite my superpower. 

After extensive online training, if mostly self-study (too much, I think), it's off to the field. A fun experience is certain apartment buildings where you need to wait to be let in. Training began at the beginning of August with field work starting mid-August. A few weeks of full work was followed up by a few weeks of on average of about twenty-five hours a week. Again, this was partially a reflection of skill-set since others had more ability to get successful visits. 

Nonetheless, I am not sure how much even the best of people would be for many of my stops -- I had something like twenty hits on my block alone and very few people were home. When they were home, they were not very helpful. A few simply refused to engage, such as one who would not even say if a neighboring house was occupied. By the end, people were starting to be rather crude, showing they were tired of us. 

I mainly received a case list of locations in my general area, it seen as not worth their time to send me somewhere during which I'm paid for an hour or whatever of merely travel. It would be particularly useful to speak Spanish (I do not) though a few other languages, particularly Albanian, popped up as well. We get a "language card" to show to people in such cases that provide a basic thumbnail of why we are there. I really had no basic need for that except for a few times at most. 

Overall, one has to not take rejection personally, the process rather depressing to me given net my success rate was low. It seems that at least in my area that the need for the end of October date might be deemed questionable. There was a limited number of cases left as the final days of September arose, from what we were told at least, though surely there were some that were not accomplished. Since we went by old address information, some addresses were vacant or not really addresses at all (such as a supposed separate unit at a private house). I personally have not received cases since the last full week of September though still am on call if necessary. 

Oh, we always wear masks (cloth masks provided along with hand sanitizer), which is okay, if making it harder to communicate at times.  It was at times a tad bit hot in the middle of August -- sweating while you are in the middle of asking questions is a bit tedious -- but turned out not to be that bad. This included only a few days when rain was an issue.  Holding an umbrella while trying to use a smartphone and holding/giving out/filling out paper forms is rather tedious unless it is inside.  And, I had a lot of private houses on my route.  One got into a groove, but again, it was often a project of futility. 

Kudos who did better than me and those who were pleasant when I stopped by. I will update if necessary.