Can’t read English census? No problem

By http://www.journal-news.com/services/staff/josh-sweigart-332300.html - Josh Sweigart , Staff Writer Updated 12:42 AM Sunday, February 14, 2010

HAMILTON — In order to count every person living in the United States on April 1, 2010, the U.S. Census Bureau is going to great lengths.

Roughly 13 million census forms written in Spanish and English will go out across the country, targeted at largely Spanish-speaking areas defined by the 2000 census and local census partners.

On March 19, the Census Bureau will open assistance centers in areas considered hard to count. They will be open 15 hours a week through April 19, many staffed by bilingual workers who can answer local residents’ questions about the census.

There will be 57 assistance centers in the area served by the West Chester Twp. field office, which includes Hamilton and Middletown. They will be in donated spaces.

“It might be a senior citizens center, it might be a church,” said regional Census spokeswoman Donna Marsh. “If people don’t receive a questionnaire or they need a new one ... they can go there and get the help that they need.”

Forms also will be available in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese and Russian, as well as in Braille and in large print. And phone numbers will be offered in all of these languages for people who need to ask questions or request forms.

“I think that (mailing Spanish forms) will be a good thing, and we will have good results for the census with the Hispanic population,” said Lourdes Cordero, parents liaison for children who speak English as a second language at Middletown City Schools.

“I think people are receiving now the message and they understand better,” she said of the census, which has worked to educate all populations about the importance of the count.

In addition to determining Ohio’s representation in U.S. Congress, census officials say an accurate count is important in properly distributing $400 billion in federal funds that are awarded based on census data.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2175 or jsweigart@coxohio.com.

Gotta count our illegals.Does it make any sense why people that are here illegaly get to help shape our elections ?