Cheri Wine (Edison State College): Concerned about 2010 Census.

The 2010 Census is in full circulation this month. The first census was done in 1790. It is mandatory by the constitution of the United States of America, and is to be done every ten years. The census is used to divide and assign seats in the house of representatives. Also, the census is used to distribute federal funds annually. If you refuse to fill out the census government employees will come to your house and demand the information if necessary. If continual refusal you can face up to a 5,000 dollar fine. The census is asking more personal questions this year. The census questions are asking for your race, employment status, the name of everyone in your household, and your telephone number to name a few. There are concern with this years census because of two major changes.  First, ACORN is now involved, becoming a national partner with the 2010 Census. People are having many concerns about giving their personal information, and then handing it off to an ACORN employee. The reason for this concern is because ACORN’s employees have been indited after pleading guilty to voter fraud in the past. In addition to the concern of ACORN’s involvement, the white house announced they are taking control of the census bureau. The reporting authority of the census was  the commerce department,  and now it will report directly to the white house staff. If one political party controls this it may be rigged. The commerce departments rule for census counting is an actual head count. There has been talk about changing the counting rule by using sampling (a mathematical formula) in urban areas and with immigrants, to help count the census more accurately. That could allow the numbers to be screwed, and possibly causing one party to stay in congress longer or getting more political funding.   These concerns are valid. However, the forms must be filled out, regardless of concerns. It has huge effect on politics.  It helps shape our government and future state funding.  Get out your pens and pencils, take part in the 220 year mandatory tradition of the constitution, fill out your census.

This entry was posted on 3. March 2010 at 22:59 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.