I have a close family member working for the census and I think there are a lot of legitimate reasons for it to be done. One thing he has been dealing with are displaced and homeless people who need to be counted in their various camps and gathering places so that social service funding in those areas can be evened out.

So then comes the problem, apparently some of the better connected real estate interests in those areas have been big into the "not in my backyard syndrome" and are afraid that if there is a large "poverty count" in the area, then there will be more social services which would potentially attract more poor people, and there would be a reduction in property values, especially the value of real estate trading hands because the median income for the given area would drop along with other indicators of the "class" of a given area.

So the cops and some private security people are making a point of rousting the homeless and "squatters" so they don't get counted. The relative of mine was briefed and told this is a problem in a lot of places.

Census data manipulation is such a big problem, that on the "special case" data collection, they were told not to use FAX or Internet to discuss or transmit the data, and to minimize discussions on the phone. They were even avoiding US mail due to security concerns and going with Fedex.

Next stage is counting people in more or less regular addresses, and there has been an issue that came up with a particular manager in Oregon saying very inappropriate things about the "backwoods types" and "survivalists" living in the southern coastal areas of the state. It is bad enough that her comments, plus some of the paranoia being pushed elsehwere could endanger other census workers.

So what is happening is the workers are coming up with various strategies for not getting fired upon when they head out into the rural areas, especially some of the more backwoods places, as none want to get shot, and they are generally unarmed.

The census is a legitimate government function. Now could the information be abused? Sure, but preventing an accurate census is potentially and probably even more damaging because it will lead to corrupt isolation of people who need representation in public interests.