Census' door-to-door canvassing to continue

The Herald-Sun
June 17, 2010

U.S. Census Bureau

DURHAM -- The current door-to-door phase of the 2010 Census is about 94 percent complete, but there are several reasons why a census worker may visit your home in coming weeks.

Robert Groves, director of the U.S. Census Bureau, said Wednesday that about 44 million census forms had been completed and checked-in as of Sunday, leaving about 3 million forms to be collected and processed. "We are somewhat ahead of schedule and certainly under budget," Groves said.

Since May 1, about 550,000 census employees have been going door-to-door nationwide to obtain completed census questionnaires from more than 47 million households that failed to return a form by April 16.

"In some parts of North Carolina, the workload was completed weeks ahead of the July 10 deadline for the Nonresponse Followup phase," said William W. Hatcher, Charlotte regional director for the Census Bureau.

Nevertheless, he added, over the next several weeks census workers will continue to contact some households in North Carolina as part of one of several quality-control operations. They include:

* Coverage followup: Until mid-August, households will be called to clarify answers provided on the census questionnaire (for example, the number of people listed at an address doesn't match the number of names provided).

* Vacant delete check: In July census workers will double check vacant households and those we deleted as nonexistent on April 1, the reference date for the 2010 census. We also will visit housing units from which we received blank or incomplete forms.

* Field verification: In August, census workers will visit households for which a form has been received but whose address does not match an address in the master file. This operation also seeks to resolve suspected duplicate addresses.

"These operations are supplemented by other quality-assurance processes to maximize accuracy," Hatcher said. "In some cases, that means a home may be visited more than once."

Some households that mailed in a form have received a visit from a census worker. Reasons include incomplete or conflicting answers or forms received after deadline.