Couple says questions too personal, threatened with fine if don't comply
But they're not too keen on the American Community Survey, a more in-depth, ongoing questionnaire the Census Bureau conducts to compile information on area demographics, consumer patterns and economic issues.
In particular, the Scotts did not want to answer questions they found too personal, such as inquiries about their income, when they left for work and their health.
"The new questionnaire has gone way over the line," Scott said. "We have told the representative that we are not going to answer private questions, but they continue to come to our door at all hours of the day and night."
Scott said the requests had become so repetitive and annoying, the couple began pulling the old "out-of-candy-on-Halloween trick."
"I work afternoons, and I'm not home," Scott said. "My wife has to sit with the lights off because she doesn't want to be bothered."
Often, even that doesn't work.
"They knock and knock and knock and ring and ring and ring," Beverly Scott said. "Knocking longer is not going to make me answer the door, and it's not going to help if we're not here."
The final straw, John Scott said, was when a Census Bureau employee told him he would be fined $2,000 if he did not fill out the 48-question survey.
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