Census ground campaign begins

The U.S. Census Bureau wants Alaskans to know that it is in their interest to be counted in this year's ongoing tally of everybody in the country.

U.S. Census Bureau deputy regional director Mike Burns warned that the consequences of not being counted will cost the state, both financially and in representation.

"It's about power, it's about money, and it's about justice," he said at Juneau's City Hall Tuesday.

Burns was in Juneau to support the beginning of the door-to-door count, when census enumerators visit residents who did not return mailed census forms.

Burns praised the high response rate for Juneau, which leads Alaska in returning mailed forms, but also pointed out Alaska was trailing the rest of the nation in responding.

Alaska's response rate is so low, in fact, that Juneau trails the national average, even while leading the state.

Burns met with Mayor Bruce Botelho, Sen. Dennis Egan and other city officials Tuesday to let the public know of the new, door-to-door phase of the enumeration effort.

Botelho called the city's 71 percent participation rate "very gratifying for me."

He praised the city's Complete Count Committee, headed by Assembly member Bob Doll and Sealaska executive Katherine Eldemar, for the strong showing so far.

Getting Juneau, as well as Southeast Alaska fully counted will mean the region gets all the representation it is entitled to when this year's census numbers are used for redistricting legislative seats next year, Botelho said.

Southeast's declining population relative to Southcentral means it is certain to lose legislative seats, but local leaders don't want that decline exaggerated by a failure of local residents to be fully counted.

"We do want a complete count," Botelho said.

Burns said the Census Bureau provides count information to the state, and the Democratic and Republican parties, but doesn't get involved in the traditional redistricting battles that follow.

"The Census Bureau only collects it, we don't get involved in the politics," he said.

In addition to the political power at stake, Burns said significant amounts of money are at stake as well.

Federal programs that are based on census population counts average spending about $1,400 per person every year, Burns said. That means that if a family of four goes uncounted, it can cost the community significant money over the next 10 years.

The new door-to-door effort has involved hiring about 1,700 Alaskans to make visits of those homes not counted in the mail effort.

Each of those home visits is expensive, which is why Burns said multiple mailings were done first.

"We got a lot of kickback from the public, with people saying 'you're spending so much money,'" Burns said, explaining that the mailings were cost savers for the bureau.

The census workers are out doing counts now, and trying to reach about 109,000 households thought to exist but that have not yet been counted.

That's called "non-response follow-up" by the bureau, and includes residents who receive mail at post office boxes, and thus did not get questionnaires.

The census takers will not be intrusive, and have only a 10-question form, he said.

For security reasons, each will have a census identification and will be carrying a census bag with blue lettering. Each has passed a background check, and taken an oath of confidentiality.

No attempted scams linked to the census have been reported in Juneau or Alaska, he said, but in the Seattle-area there were reports of people claiming to be census workers to begin sales pitches.

Burns said census workers will ask 10 basic questions, including names, ages and ethnicity, but will never ask for social security numbers, bank data, or other such information.

The Census Bureau's Telephone Questionnaire Assistance Toll Free Help Line is at 1-866-872-6868.

• Contact reporter Pat Forgey at patrick.forgey@juneauempire.com.