Columbia Census workers kicked off the nationwide two week "March to the Mailbox" campaign Thursday, reminding us all to mail back our completed Census questionnaire.
U.S. Census officials are re-mailing forms out to households that have not yet returned their form as another way to remind people to "March to the Mailbox." The mailings and advertisements have already generated a better response rate than the last Census 10 years ago according to Census Officials.
"Jefferson City right now has a 57 percent response rate. Columbia is 56 percent," Columbia Census office manager Jerry Taylor said. "The national average is 55 percent. So its working for us."
More forms returned by mail means less door to door Census work done by hourly workers.
"The census workers we have here in our area starts at $11 dollars [an hour] and we have some workers that are paid up to $14 [per hour]," Taylor said. "And then they are reimbursed 50 cents a mile for the mileage they use in their vehicle."
Officials estimate it costs about $57 dollars per household to send a trained Census taker to the door. It costs the government only 42 cents to mail the form.
If you don't mail the form back, Census workers will come knocking in about a month.
If you have sent back your form, you shouldn't receive another one.
But if you do get a second one by mistake, Census officials said to throw it away.
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