Fill Out the Census Data Or Else

GANNETT NEWS SERVICE reports:

Every month, people living in 250,000 U.S. households may run the risk of going to jail because they didn't complete a questionnaire.

Failure to fill out the American Community Survey, the federal government's nationwide annual data collection and part of the reengineered Census 2010, is punishable with fines or imprisonment. Recipients have three weeks to return the form.

It's not junk mail. The envelope warns: "Your response is required by law."

However, census spokesman Stephen Buckner admits that the bureau has no enforcement authority and that prosecution is rare, making the bureau's politely worded intimidation as effective as a parent who threatens to punish a child and never does.

"We rely on their sense of civic duty," he explained, likening it to voting and jury duty. The data is used for getting "funds back, political distribution, to help bring social services into the community. You can't make decisions without data and if you do, you don't know how good the decisions are."

But the warning still makes Kathleen Stavropulos of Lincoln Park angry. Between caring for her terminally ill husband and taking care of their home, Stavropulos, 85, said she doesn't have time to answer the questions.

"To fill up 25 pages, to think and worry and to get all the data they want, it seemed unreasonable for them to force me to do it," she said. "It's a burden for me. I'd rather someone hold a gun to my head."

Could Wal-Mart force you to fill out a survey?