Not Just Politics

A detailed measure will let the nation see its demographic changes and composition as well as how to spend government money.

Census enumerator Kenny Bender is in charge of a quality-control operation to ensure that there is no undercount in the census. He says that understanding the nation’s demographics are important for funding in the community.

 “It’s important to know how many people of certain ages there are,” said census counter Kenny Bender. “It’s important to know how many children are living in an area for school district funding, for example.

In March 2020, every household will receive a census questionnaire through the mail. Other ways to respond include through filling out an online questionnaire, through a phone call by calling the Census Bureau, or a local census taker will help those who don’t respond. 

The census will include questions about a household, their age, their sex and their race. However, the census will not ask for a Social Security number or one’s political preference.

All responses must be submitted by April 2017 according to the U.S Census Bureau.

Some are worried about the upcoming questions on the census.

“As of now, there is no citizenship question on the official 2020 census, but that doesn’t mean that people know or trust the government with their information,” said Victor.

The responses cannot be used by immigration or federal authorities.

The responses are protected by law and are used for statistics on the population. All census workers are sworn under oath to protect personal information and risk $25,000 in fines and four years in prison if they fail to do so.

“People moving or not being accurately counted won’t just affect funding, but more long term problems like politics,” said senior Eric Osecheck. “Having the census is important to maintain a fair balance throughout the nation.”