Census Confusion: Form Shows Up With Right Address, Wrong City

Right address. Wrong city. Big confusion for the census. Hundreds of forms are showing up in mailboxes across St. Louis with serious errors, but residents are being told to fill them out anyway. "In the last couple of days we've gotten about 100 calls from residents," says Lisa Bedian, spokesperson for the city of St. Peters. The people calling city hall to complain live in St. Peters, but the census form shows their address as Cottleville.

Similar problems have shown up in Hazelwood, with some people receiving forms with their correct street address but with the city listed as Florissant or Ferguson. Other communities in California, Arkansas, and Wisconsin are experiencing the same issues.

The director of the US Census bureau keeps a blog, and he addressed the problems Wednesday. He explained census computers addressed forms based on the post office's zip code system. However, zip codes don't always follow city boundaries. And sometimes the computers arbitrarily used one city name for an entire zip code, even if it was incorrect.


The census is used to funnel government money to cities, so there was initial concern cities would lose funding for residents, but those fears have been calmed. The director explained the barcode on each census form has exact mapping information, ensuring the correct city will get credit for each of its residents even if the city is wrong on the form.

"For every person not counted, we lose about 12 hundred dollars a year," explains Hazelwood City Clerk Colleen Klos. "Send it in," says Hazelwood Mayor Matthew Robinson. "It takes ten minutes to do it. Send it in as soon as you can."

St. Peters is working hard to get the word out to residents to fill out the form, even if there is a problem on it. It is a "news flash" on the city's website and it is running continuously as a news story on the city's cable access channel. The city will meet with census representatives once the count is done to ensure the numbers are right, says Bedian.

"We're going to stay on top of it - I think everyone in the region is going to do the same thing because it's just that important, and it's so important for people to send that form back to the census even if that city's listed wrong," she says.