[Vision2020] Census not delegating to ACORN (was: Sonia v. Sarah)

[Kenneth Marcy]

On Thursday 16 July 2009 10:24:33 lfalen wrote:
<snip>
> It is of concern however that ACORN may be in charge of the census. illegal 
> alians maybe given amnesty, and the vote, and that people may be allowed to 
> vote with out antiquate proof of citizenship.

No.

At a hearing on April 23 before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on 
Commerce, Justice and Science, Commerce Secretary Gary Locke responded to 
concerns about ACORN's role voiced by a Republican senator:

     "Locke, April 23, 2009: [T]he Census will not be hiring anyone from 
ACORN. We use these so-called partners to get the word out and to spread the 
word about the need for people to respond and answer the 
questionnaires. ...We control the hiring. We do not use any government funds 
to subcontract with any organization to do any activity. ...We are not 
delegating anything to ACORN."

The quote above is taken from an article by FactCheck.org on the Annenberg 
Political Fact Check site:

http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/is_acorn_providing_workers_for_the_2010.html 

"QUESTION: Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) sign 
on as a "national partner" with the U.S. Census Bureau to sign up over 1 
million temporary workers to help with the 2010 census?

ANSWER: No. ACORN employees will not be taking the census. The group is one of 
more than 30,000 "partners" that will help publicize the event.

ACORN has indeed signed on to partner with the Census Bureau in connection 
with the 2010 census, along with about 30,000 other groups at the time of 
this writing. Others under "A" include, for example, the American Statistical 
Association, the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, Avon Products Inc. and 
57 additional organizations and corporations. The Census Bureau's Web site 
includes an open invitation to sign on, and the agency says it expects to 
have more than 100,000 partners by the time the process is over. That may 
even be an underestimate: In 2000, it signed up 140,000 partners.

We've received questions about ACORN's activities in connection with the 
headcount ever since a Fox News story, headlined "ACORN to play role in 2010 
census," appeared in March. As retold by and filtered through blogs and chain 
e-mails, the news left some people with the impression that ACORN, the 
liberal community organizing group whose voter registration activities became 
an issue in last year's presidential campaign, would be a big player in 
running the census effort.

ACORN "will be in charge of going door-to-door and collecting data from the 
American public," said Rep. Michele Bachmann in mid-June. "This is very 
concerning." Saying she was worried about ACORN's supposed involvement in 
gathering census data, the Minnesota Republican announced that she won't 
participate in the census beyond answering how many individuals reside in her 
household, "because," she maintained, "the Constitution doesn't require any 
information beyond that." Actually, the Constitution, under Article 1, 
Section 2, simply requires that an "enumeration" be done every 10 years to 
apportion the members of the House, but that it be done "in such manner" as 
Congress "shall by law direct." And Congress has seen fit to require everyone 
to answer truthfully whatever census questions they are asked, under threat 
of a $100 penalty for failure to answer and $500 for lying.

And Bachmann is flat wrong about ACORN going door-to-door and gathering data. 
Being "partners" with the Census Bureau doesn't entail as close a 
relationship as one might think. For the most part it involves getting the 
word out that it's important for everyone to participate in the decennial 
event that helps determine where federal money goes and how House of 
Representatives district boundaries are redrawn."


Ken