Over the next several weeks you might be visited by a North Dakota census worker. These people are hired locally and have taken an oath to protect confidentiality under punishment by law. They are also carrying out an important civic duty, ensuring government representation and bringing your tax dollars back to the community.
By being counted you are standing up for what your community's needs are. That's why census takers are so important. A census taker is a person from your community who is hired by the Census Bureau to make sure that your neighborhood gets represented as accurately as possible. The census taker's primary responsibility is to collect census information from residences that have not sent back their 2010 Census form.
The Census Bureau provides the census taker with a binder containing all of the addresses that didn't send back a filled out census form. The census taker then visits all of those addresses and records the answers to the questions on the form. If no one answers at a particular residence, a census taker will visit that home up to three times, each time leaving a door hanger featuring a phone number; residents can call the number on the hanger to schedule the visit. The census taker will ONLY ask the questions that appear on the census form.
Your privacy and confidentiality are priority:
The census taker who collects your information is sworn for life to protect your data under Federal Law Title 13. Those who violate the oath face criminal penalties: Under federal law, the penalty for unlawful disclosure is a fine of up to $250,000 or imprisonment for up to 5 years, or both.
Please take a few minutes if they come to your door and meet someone working for the largest peacetime mobilization in American history. There’s a good chance you’ll already know them.
Thank you…and be counted. Be counted for Bismarck!