Census Listers Now Walking Neighborhoods in Evergreen State to Verify Addresses; How Residents May Verify if Contacted
August 20, 2019 (SEATTLE) — Address canvassing in Washington state is now underway in preparation for the 2020 Census. Address canvassing improves and refines the Census Bureau’s address list of households, which is necessary to deliver invitations to respond to the census. The address list plays a vital role in ensuring a complete and accurate count of everyone living in the United States.
“The Census Bureau is dedicated to ensuring that we are on track, and ready to accomplish the mission of the 2020 Census,” said Census Bureau Director Steven Dillingham. “We have made many improvements and innovations over the past decade, including better technologies for canvassing neighborhoods and developing complete and updated address listings and maps.”
As a necessary component of address canvassing, Census Bureau listers are now walking neighborhoods in Washington to verify select residential addresses. Those residences chosen for verification will be contacted by a lister who will ask a few simple questions to verify the address and any additional living quarters on the property. Address canvassing is a separate operation from enumeration, which will occur beginning in March 2020 with the goal of counting every person in the United States once, only once, and in the right place.
Listers are identifiable by official Census Bureau badges and those persons contacted as part of address canvassing may request a second form of government-issued, photo ID from listers for cross-verification. Residents may also contact the Census Bureau call center at 800-923-8282 to confirm the identity of persons identifying themselves as Census Bureau listers.
More information on the Census Bureau’s address canvasing operation, including a sample image of a Census Bureau ID badge, is available at census.gov/library/video/2019/address-canvassing-for-2020-census.html.
