Census household visits 'on schedule and under budget'

Pronouncing efforts "on schedule and under budget," the U.S. Census Bureau's director said Wednesday the bureau had visited nearly 77 percent of the 47 million households that had not returned census forms.

The bureau's door-to-door operation, involving more than 600,000 census takers, began May 1 in most areas and will continue until at least July 10 - some operations, such as quality control, will extend beyond that date.

"Now is the time to cooperate with those people," bureau director Robert Groves said at a news conference in Washington, D.C.

"We understand that some people feel we are harassing them," Groves said. "We beg for your cooperation if they knock on your door for the second or third time," as census takers try to get information from people who never returned the form, or to check the accuracy of information on the form as part of quality control procedures.

Census takers will make up to six contacts - three home visits and three phone calls. They also inquire with neighbors of those they are attempting to reach. Federal law requires all residents to answer the census.

On Long Island, a bureau official said census takers' visits to some 400,000 households "are right on target or pretty close," in three areas and was almost complete in a fourth.

The field operation on the East End, where about 96,000 households were visited by census takers, started March 19. The bureau didn't mail census forms there because most people received their mail at post office boxes. The count on the East End is now 98 percent complete, said Bill Harfmann, the bureau's area manager for Nassau and Suffolk counties.

Harfmann said the door-to-door operation was about 77 percent complete in the area west of Riverhead Town to the Patchogue line. The area from Patchogue to the Nassau County line was 55 percent to 60 percent complete. And the two sectors in Nassau County were each about 60 percent complete.

Harfmann said the rates varied, depending on how densely populated an area was, or whether there were great distances to travel, both factors in slowing down the enumeration process. He said the principal challenge was trying to find people at home.

"Some people don't get home until 7 p.m., so we lose hours there," Harfmann said. He said the bureau was now sending more census takers out between the hours of 4 and 9 p.m. to try to contact more people at home.

Groves also addressed safety issues. He cited a couple of cases, one in Indiana, where a census taker was allegedly involved in a burglary and rape, and one in New Jersey, where a sex offender worked briefly for the bureau until a fingerprint check was completed, "recognizing him as an offender." Mostly, though, he said census takers have been the victims, with more than 100 assaulted, carjacked or shot. Seven have been killed in car accidents while on duty.