Census safety
Caution needed in rolling out door-to-door counting
The U.S. Census Bureau must exercise caution in its plan to send staffers door to door in the coming weeks. At first most of that contact involves dropping census packets at doors, but that operation will be expanded throughout the summer to include direct interaction with the public.
A rush to count isn’t worth the risk to census-takers or the public and a delay will not do any harm with the extended deadlines already approved by the federal government, which could be extended further.
Even with social distancing practices and masks it’s difficult to be 6 feet away from someone opening the door, let alone the likely need to hear questions spoken through a mask.
The bureau should postpone doorto-door contacts for a bit longer, until the effects of reopening in many states can be evaluated.
There’s another concern as well — shoddy screening of door-to-door workers. The U.S. Office of Inspector General found that both workers in the field and office workers in critical and high-risk positions had problems noted in their background reports. And 10,000 background reports for census workers since 2014 had not been evaluated, according to an Associated Press report.
That is unacceptable. Personal information of millions of Americans cannot be exposed in that manner, let alone the risk to people simply answering their door for a census worker.
The larger issue, though, remains the coronavirus.
The bureau still plans to hire 500,000 temporary census workers. That’s a large number of potential exposures and carriers as operations expand. Until there is a system in place for antibody testing, that plan is overly aggressive.
The national self-response rate hit 56% in May — so more than half of the population has reported. There is no need to rush. That being said, there is a history of undercounting of minority communities, Native Americans and the homeless. Targeted plans in addition to existing count plans for underserved communities would be welcome.
No matter what the plan for a count, the safety of census respondents and census workers should be foremost.