CENSUS DIRECTOR: WE MAY HAVE COUNTED MANY HOMELESS PEOPLE TWICE

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

U.S. Census Bureau Director Dr. Robert Groves told CNSNews.com on Wednesday that the Census has “no way, unfortunately, of knowing whether or not homeless individuals were counted twice,” and added, “we may have duplicates.”

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[peejay 327]

Maybe it's because they all look alike.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Maybe it's because they all look alike.

No, it's because they hired temporary workers to hang out in front of supermarkets, etc., in areas with high homeless, etc., populations, and encouraged folks to fill out an "extra" census form, "Just in case the other one(s) you filled before got lost in the mail."

[peejay 327]

No, it's because they hired temporary workers to hang out in front of supermarkets, etc., in areas with high homeless, etc., populations, and encouraged folks to fill out an "extra" census form, "Just in case the other one(s) you filled before got lost in the mail."

While I would hope that the census count is accurate, apparently it isn't. That is troubling, but not necessarily criminal. I would certainly be riled if census workers were doing this to skew political advantage or to get more federal dollars for their district for personal gain rather than miscounting due to incompetence, laziness, or because they really don't give a sh*t.

One would hope that if there were substantive proof this was done willfully, purposely, and with intent to skew political representation in favor of one party that the DoJ would pursue this matter for possible criminal prosecution. But since the homeless generally don't tend to vote Republican and the DoJ is in Democratic control I seriously doubt this would happen. Especially in light of the refusal of Holder's DoJ to prosecute the New Black Panthers when they engaged in blatant voter intimidation that likely benefited the Democrats.

[The_Dude 1,142]

I dont' know why they wouldn't simply just go to the local police department. I don't know about other regions, but here, most police departments keep an informal census of the city's homeless population.

[mawilson 2,133]

Maybe it's because they all look alike.

Or smell alike.

[IndigoSkies 168]

This kind of things wouldn't happen if US had a standard National ID like many other countries. You could have a running/living census whenever you wanted. We already have something similar, the SSN. But it's not very reliable as SSN gets recycled and reused. And the records associate with it aren't very accurate or useful.

I propose a new national id card for everyone. This card could act as driver license, ssn, voter card. It would make tracking people much easier (when needed) and it would make it easier to get/use government benefits. It could be used as credit card, atm card, and whole lot of other things. Each person would get an unique id that never gets reused. Eventually it oculd be used to replace transactions in cash all together. This would prevent fraud and possibliy terrorism. Every cent you spend is associate to you uniquely.

Edited July 8, 2010 by IndigoSkies

[The_Dude 1,142]

This kind of things wouldn't happen if US had a standard National ID like many other countries. You could have a running/living census whenever you wanted. We already have something similar, the SSN. But it's not very reliable as SSN gets recycled and reused. And the records associate with it aren't very accurate or useful.

I propose a new national id card for everyone. This card could act as driver license, ssn, voter card. It would make tracking people much easier (when needed) and it would make it easier to get/use government benefits. It could be used as credit card, atm card, and whole lot of other things. Each person would get an unique id that never gets reused. Eventually it oculd be used to replace transactions in cash all together. This would prevent fraud and possibliy terrorism. Every cent you spend is associate to you uniquely.

The bolded part of your suggestion scares me. You've proposed both far left socialist and far right dictatorial ideals there. Neither is a good idea.

[IndigoSkies 168]

The bolded part of your suggestion scares me. You've proposed both far left socialist and far right dictatorial ideals there. Neither is a good idea.

Paranoid much?

Malaysia has a national id card that functions as

Identity card

Driving licence

Passport in Malaysia and several neighbouring countries

Insurance card

e-cash, though with a maximum limit of US$ 500, intended for low value but high volume transactions

toll booth card

Digital certificate, commonly known as Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

frequent travellers' card

credit card

debit card

Government benefit doesn't mean "socialism" automatically. Think about all the ways you benefited from government. You should know since you are on VisaJourney. I'm sure you filed G325a, biographic info. If you had a national id card, all you had to do was provide you ID number. Using that FBI could check your craps in few seconds. Instead of days, weeks, months. They could've quickly figured out if you are woman abuser from your criminal records if you had one. When you go to vote, you could've quickly cast your vote. From the internets using your ID. No need to wait in line for hours. There are so many benefits to having a national id card.

Edited July 8, 2010 by IndigoSkies

[Dan J 277]

The census is based on counting by residential address. When two forms have the same address you can quickly detect duplication. Now with homeless people, address might change and if given forms again, they might provide another address. Being that they are homeless, there is also an chance that they never get counted as well.

The simple way to deal with this would be to require a national ID number. But that gets into all sorts of civil liberties issues.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

An old friend of mine died this year. As much as all his friends, including myself, tried to intervene, he refused all help, and decided to live under a bridge. One night, while crossing a street, he was hit by a truck and killed. There were friends nearby, so he didn't die alone. When it came time to claim the remains, they wouldn't release it without a physical address. Despite all the protestations that he was homeless, and didn't have a "physical address", they still would not budge. Finally, his ex-girlfriend made up an address, and that satisfied the coroner's office.

So, homeless by definition don't have an address. But, like was said, most local cops are familiar with most of the homeless population.

Edited July 8, 2010 by ##########

[slim 1,525]

Isn't this how Obama got elected?

They seemed to be able to count all those votes, of course they can count these census forms.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Do you think there are more homeless people who got counted twice or illegal people that didn't get counted at all?

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Do you think there are more homeless people who got counted twice or illegal people that didn't get counted at all?

What about homeless illegal midgets?

[spookyturtle 9,466]

What about homeless illegal midgets?

Such a small number wouldn't affect the accuracy.