"When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty."  Thomas Jefferson

Free Letter of the Week

We had some questions regarding the multiple mailings done by the Census Bureau for the 2010 Census and below is the letter & the response for your perusal.  (by the way, the response from them was immediate!  Kudo's to them for that!  Dottie

To: pio.2010@census.gov
Subject: Census mailings
 
To whom it may concern,
 
I have been having some problems with all of the added and unnecessary expenses tagged on to this years Census.  I got 3 mailings, one of which was the actual census and I am not sure why the other two since I am not a moron and have the ability to mail back something that is important without the constant nanny-ing.  This must be just another waste of MY taxpaying dollars for the wasteful expense of the paper & the postage!  Many received nothing and that caused them to waste their time & money (stamps) to find out why.  These are the folks that chose to have their mail delivered to Post Office boxes and not their homes, a convenience they pay the government (if the US Post Office is still a government office) extra for.  Why are they excluded from the initial mailing?  Will our government ever do anything correct???

Dottie Zee

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 RESPONSE

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pio.2010@census.gov to me
show details Apr 9

Thank you for your email about your concerns. Not everyone is as efficient as you. I've pasted reasons why we send out multiple forms. It still saves taxpayers money to mail out multiple forms vs. a census taker going to other people's door.
ISSUE - CONCERN ABOUT MULTIPLE MAILINGS
THE 2010 CENSUS WILL USE A MULTIPLE CONTACT STRATEGY TO INCREASE THE MAIL
RESPONSE RATE AND SAVE TAXPAYER MONEY.

• The multiple contact strategy consists of an advance letter, the questionnaire package, a
  
  reminder postcard and a replacement questionnaire.
  o The 2010 Census forms are being delivered by the U.S. Postal Service March
  15-17 throughout the country to about 120 million households.
  o The week of March 8, we sent an advance letter, which is a state-of-the-art
  practice in survey research. The advance letter is an act of courtesy that also
  legitimizes the mailing of the Census form and thereby leads to higher
  participation rates.
  o The week of March 22, we'll send a postcard reminding people to fill out the form
  and mail it back, if they haven't already done so.
  o In early April, we will send a second questionnaire to households that are in
  areas with traditionally or currently low mail response rates.
  o Since the cost of Census takers' salaries to follow up with face-to-face visits is so
  high, these additional mailings save taxpayer money, compared to just sending
  out the form.
  o
  
• This multiple contact strategy is based on research: We have extensive research that

shows additional mailings alerting households to the arrival of the Census form and
reminding them to participate increases response rates by about 6 to 12 percentage
points. Research shows that a "replacement" or second questionnaire could increase
response rates by 7 to 10 percentage points.

• The savings from those increases more than pay for these mailings. It costs about $85

million to print and mail the advance letter and reminder postcard. It costs about $42
million to print and mail the replacement questionnaire.

• The Census Bureau is dedicated to being a careful steward of the taxpayers' money. We

believe this use of money is a wise investment to avoid much larger salary costs of staff
to follow up those who do not fill out the form and mail it back.

• The potential increase in response rates demonstrated by the multiple contact strategy

research could result in a savings of more than $500 million, a savings that more than
pays for the cost of the additional mailings.

• Research throughout the world has shown that some people will not fill out the Census

form immediately; some will put it on a table along with other mail. It tends to be
forgotten, not as a deliberate act, but merely in the belief of "we'll get to it later." Anything
we can do to remind people of the importance of filling out the form can avoid the
expensive follow-up stage of the Census.