You May Already Have Won!

Think about getting a prize, maybe an iPod or a Starbucks gift card, just for completing your census form.

Just in time for the 2010 Census, the Census Bureau is looking at ways to increase responses, reportedly including the use of prizes as an incentive.

Dr. Martha Farnsworth Riche is the former Director of the U.S. Census Bureau. She tells FederalNewsRadio this isn't the first time the idea has been run up the flagpole. "Certainly we looked at it for the 2000 Census... We looked at it pretty thoroughly: we consulted with people in the sweepstakes industry to find out exactly what would be involved, and after doing that, we decided not to persue it. It just had more costs than it looked like having benefits."

Part of the problem, Riche tells the Federal Drive, is that the people who tend not to complete the Census forms are the same people who are less likely to participate in a sweepstakes. So, instead of a state or national sweepstakes, as was considered in 2000, this time more individual prizes are being considered.

"I'll tell you what I think is going to happen," offers Riche. "We also figured out how much time it would take to do the kind of research, testing, and design to implement a sweepstakes, and they don't have that much time." When asked for specifics, Riche says the process would take between three and five years.

Remember, we've been trying to, and successfully in 2000 we did, increase the response rate, in part by having a simpler form. So now you're... complicating it and you've got to figure out what that effect is going to be. Are you really going to lose more than you gain by this addition, and you really gotta test it.

But that's not the biggest challenge of this census, says Riche.

Decisions made 25, 30 years ago in terms of how much hiring the Census Bureau could do, and federal govenment in general, sort of hit on this census because so many people retired after the 2000 Census, people with decades of experience, that there really wasn't the trained group of people in place to take over from them and a lot of people are having to learn really fast, and I think that was part of their problem that they just had with these handhelds.

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On the Web:

Census Bureau - homepage

USA Today - Census considers rewards for data

Dr. Martha Farnsworth Riche - bio and contact information

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