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Census experts puzzled by high rate of unanswered questions

3 points by oblib 5y ago

merciBien 5y ago
The article says Australian and other country’s online census tools don’t allow people to continue with incomplete answers. The US version evidently does. It seems obvious that design decision would lead to more incomplete answers than the more restrictive design.
- oblib 5y ago
  The animosity towards the government in deep red areas is intense. There's no way you can force those folks to comply, and the laws regarding that are clear, they have to right to refuse.
oblib 5y ago
I worked for the Census both last year and this one. I live in SW Missouri Ozark Mountains and most people here wanted nothing to do with it, and were pissed when I knocked on their doors. My "Supervisors" have had a very hard time believing me when I've told them that and last year they kept sending me to the same places over and over until I refused to keep pestering those who refused to participate. The supervisors get a bonus for completed cases, us "enumerators" do not. What we got were increasingly hostile reactions and I got pretty good at calming folks down by acknowledging their right to refuse and apologizing for pestering them. Last year my 1st Supervisor decided to ride along with me one day to "show you how it's done" and I welcomed that. He quit a few days later. I have no doubt he was getting flack from his superiors who were sitting in their offices at home. This year I invited my Supervisor to ride along and he didn't take me up on it. He just quit sending me cases instead. Aside from that, from the online classes for training to the paperwork needed to get paid, their entire process has been a classic clusterfuck.
- merciBien 5y ago
  I assumed from the article that most census taking was done online last year, do you know if there were fewer face-to-face surveys than in previous years?
  - oblib 5y ago
    By law they have to visit every residence that did not use the online option. Here, that was a pretty high percentage of residencies. I'm pretty sure we only got about 40% to provide info in the two counties I worked, Taney and Ozark, in SW Missouri.

3 points by oblib 5y ago

The article says Australian and other country’s online census tools don’t allow people to continue with incomplete answers. The US version evidently does. It seems obvious that design decision would lead to more incomplete answers than the more restrictive design.

oblib 5y ago
The animosity towards the government in deep red areas is intense. There's no way you can force those folks to comply, and the laws regarding that are clear, they have to right to refuse.

oblib 5y ago

I worked for the Census both last year and this one. I live in SW Missouri Ozark Mountains and most people here wanted nothing to do with it, and were pissed when I knocked on their doors. My "Supervisors" have had a very hard time believing me when I've told them that and last year they kept sending me to the same places over and over until I refused to keep pestering those who refused to participate. The supervisors get a bonus for completed cases, us "enumerators" do not. What we got were increasingly hostile reactions and I got pretty good at calming folks down by acknowledging their right to refuse and apologizing for pestering them. Last year my 1st Supervisor decided to ride along with me one day to "show you how it's done" and I welcomed that. He quit a few days later. I have no doubt he was getting flack from his superiors who were sitting in their offices at home. This year I invited my Supervisor to ride along and he didn't take me up on it. He just quit sending me cases instead. Aside from that, from the online classes for training to the paperwork needed to get paid, their entire process has been a classic clusterfuck.

merciBien 5y ago
I assumed from the article that most census taking was done online last year, do you know if there were fewer face-to-face surveys than in previous years?
- oblib 5y ago
  By law they have to visit every residence that did not use the online option. Here, that was a pretty high percentage of residencies. I'm pretty sure we only got about 40% to provide info in the two counties I worked, Taney and Ozark, in SW Missouri.