Mine had a separate section for race, aside form the hispnic choices. I've never been mailed a census or had anyone come to my door. In 2000, I was living in a home we owned and had been there for 4 years.
First of all, I'm Heinz variety (you know, Heinz 57! :wink so I guess I'll put down "human". And if you think the census is invasive (got census yesterday), wait until you or your spouse's health ins provider wants proof that you are indeed married and have a child(ren)! We got that form today. They want copies of marriage license, birth certificates and front page of 2008 or 2009 tax forms! In my opinion thats way worse then answering the race question. All this is being done to help eliminate fraud in spite of the fact we've been on dh's ins for years! Marty
Filled mine out yesterday and it went in the mail today. I don't think that they should have all the racial choices, you are either american or not. If you want to get picky about it each of us could put our ancestry line on their. Okay, I'll step off my soap box, lol.
You know...that is true...your race has nothing to do with citizenship. It's not like it asked me if I was a citizen anyway. lol. My dd said she heard on the radio that if you do not fill it out completely you can still be fined. Now, she is 12..she is smart...but she is 12...has anyone else heard that. Maybe the fine was for not filling it out at.
Ava, I googled the fine and found this: If you refuse to give out the information or you deliberately give inaccurate information, you can be in legal trouble. According to United States Code, Title 13 (Census), Chapter 7 (Offenses and Penalties), SubChapter II, if you're over 18 and refuse to answer all or part of the Census, you can be fined up to $100. If you give false answers, you're subject to a fine of up to $500. If you offer suggestions or information with the "intent to cause inaccurate enumeration of population," you are subject to a fine of up to $1,000, up to a year in prison, or both. Here's the official verbiage: 221. Refusal or neglect to answer questions; false answers (a) Whoever, being over eighteen years of age, refuses or willfully neglects, when requested by the Secretary, or by any other authorized officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof acting under the instructions of the Secretary or authorized officer, to answer, to the best of his knowledge, any of the questions on any schedule submitted to him in connection with any census or survey provided for by subchapters I, II, IV, and V of chapter 5 of this title, applying to himself or to the family to which he belongs or is related, or to the farm or farms of which he or his family is the occupant, shall be fined not more than $100. (b) Whoever, when answering questions described in subsection (a) of this section, and under the conditions or circumstances described in such subsection, willfully gives any answer that is false, shall be fined not more than $500. (c) Notwithstanding any other provision of this title, no person shall be compelled to disclose information relative to his religious beliefs or to membership in a religious body. Sec. 222. Giving suggestions or information with intent to cause inaccurate enumeration of population Whoever, either directly or indirectly, offers or renders to any officer or employee of the Department of Commerce or bureau or agency thereof engaged in making an enumeration of population under subchapter II, IV, or V of chapter 5 of this title, any suggestion, advice, information or assistance of any kind, with the intent or purpose of causing an inaccurate enumeration of population to be made, shall be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than one year, or both. I guess you can be fined...but I still know know why some of this information is needed.
I agree that I don't know why the info is needed. I just didn't mind filling it out. But apparently, there are lot of people not happy with the idea...according to what my dd heard on the radio. She expected me to be outraged as well. lol. I'm a bit shocked that I'm not also...LOL.
I suppose that is all in each person's perspective also, but that was part of my point. The constitutional reason for the census is not about keeping stats on our races, but enumeration so that it the House of Representatives have even numbers of potential voters that they represent and the census is used to reposition these boundaries. If they have a number of illegals who cannot vote, I am not sure how that really can be considered true representation, but on the other side of that, they are here so that is also something to be considered. Not sure what is right on that as it has not been addressed as far as I know. It is true that there are fines that can be imposed and I am not encouraging anyone to break the law, however it should also be noted that these fines cannot be imposed by the Census Bureau because is not an enforcement agency, therefore it has no authority to impose fines. I am not sure how these fines would be imposed...? Then again, I am not sure it they can be legally imposed when they are asking anything beyond enumeration. However, I did find a case, Morales v. Daley, where it was found that anything basically that the government wants to ask in the census is not considered a violation of privacy--pretty scary, actually! The reasoning was because it assists our government in better governing us...according to our race and real estate ownership, I suppose. I don't have time to go searching now, but I think I also read something in case laws about it being $100 per question left unanswered and $500 per question that is false. However, no fines have every yet been enforced to my knowledge and this information you can confirm get straight from the Census Bureau itself.
Even that's not simple, though. You could be: - A permanent resident who's lived in this country for 25 years - A foreign resident who transferred to a US company office and is seeking to become a resident - A temporary resident such as an international student - A very temporary resident such as an exchange student - An illegal resident No one would admit to being an illegal immigrant, for example, on a census form - which means the questions would have little value. Local infrastructure and resources are needed for all these people whether or not they can vote. The main issue relates to size of congressional districts - and there are other issues here. Aren't there categories of citizens who cannot vote? For example, can the incarcerated or the insane vote? I didn't think they could. You have to assume that these numbers come out in the wash.
It is not that complicated. You are a U.S. Citizen at the time of the Census with voting rights or you are not. Just because you are not a citizen at that time does not mean you are an illegal immigrant.
I agree with Seeking. The question is citizen/not citizen. Doesn't matter if you're illegal, long-time resident, exchange student, etc. All that falls under not a citizen. As far as voting goes, I'm not sure exactly who is not eligible to vote. But this past presidential election, we had a lady come to church who was so proud for voting for Obama. I know this lady. She's a real sweet gal, but doesn't have an original opinion in her head. She works at a sheltered workshop, and is involved in Special Olympics. And I believe that someone somewhere manipulated her vote. If I were to tell her that Mickey Mouse would give her a free trip to Disney World if she voted for him, she would have. She had no business voting in that election, or any election.
That reminds me that even some citizens cannot vote due to being convicted of certain crimes. (Where's that DUH smilie when you need him?)
I would love it if you could provide a link to that for me? I would like to email it to someone. You know skeptics and all...
http://www.seattlepi.com/national/cens17.shtml The report on the full findings is listed in the article. I'm sure you could find a copy of the document somewhere.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-03-30-census-role_N.htm?POE=NEWISVA The last paragraph is very revealing about how they can and most likely will continue to use the census. (If it was already public information, why did was is asked to be turned over by the Census Bureau?): An ethical issue was raised in 2004 when the Census turned over information it had collected about Arab-Americans by ZIP code but not by name. The information was already public but civil rights groups protested the agency's handing over of data to Homeland Security. The Census now puts all requests for sensitive data through a rigorous approval process and makes all special releases of data available to the public. http://www.fordham.edu/campus_resources/enewsroom/archives/archive_851.asp http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=confirmed-the-us-census-b http://www.seattlepi.com/national/cens17.shtml http://www.nysun.com/national/census-bureau-aided-internment-of-japanese/51518/
They decided to send us the longer form. Again, they say it's "required by law". They are asking stuff like how old our house is, how it is heated, the number of cars, and information concerning health insurance, whether the people have "difficulty dressing or bathing", education, work, income, etc. Oh, and this time if you mark OTHER race, they want you to specify WHICH race. (Do you think they would let me say "human race"? LOL!) I'd like to know WHY we have to fill this out!
