A couple months ago I received a U.S Census Bureau package in the mail asking for all kinds of info on those who live in my home. I cracked it open and looked at what they wanted to know, decided I wasn’t interested in telling them, and then threw it in the trash. A few weeks later I received the booklet again. I can’t recall if it gave me some warning about not sending them the first one but I tossed that one too.

Friday I get home from work to find a bright yellow postcard in my mail saying:
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From:
U.S. Department of Commerce
U.S. Census Bureau
New York Regional Office
395 Hadson Street, Suite 800
New York, NY 10014

NOTICE

Starting he first of this month, a federal employee will be visiting your house or apartment to complete a nation-wide survey that is designed to provide communities a fresh look at how they are changing.

To Schedule an appointment, please call the following Field Representative: Edward Marcus (201) 927-4763

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As you may suspect I’m not going to call this guy. The only problem is that I live in a house in which I rent the first floor and on the second
floor my landlady and her children live. If Edward decides to show up during the day my landlady may be home and answer the door and the
questions. If my roommates or I am home we’ll tell him to leave.

Title 13, Chapter 7, Subchapter II, Section 221 of the US Code says:

Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects… to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census… shall be fined not more than $100.

A CNN article from 2000 says that prison time is possible. And it looks like the 2010 census is having all kinds of issues.

We’ll see what happens.