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Bourbon-scented Sanitizer and Wary Public Challenge Census

Associated Press

   ORLANDO, FLORIDA - Out on her first day of knocking on doors in the Bay
   Area, the census taker had limited success getting people to answer the
   questions on the 2020 census.

   Residents at only two homes answered all the questions about how many
   people lived there, what their relationships were and their sex, age,
   race and whether they're Hispanic. No one was home at three households,
   residents at two homes wouldn't give her the time of day, and the rest
   only answered some questions.

   Workers on the front-lines of the massive effort trying to count
   everyone in the U.S. have faced unprecedented obstacles in the last
   phase of the 2020 census: people wary of talking to strangers in a
   pandemic and distrustful of government; a shortened schedule;
   administrative snafus, and nagging concerns about the quality of the
   protective equipment they've received.

   The California census taker and others interviewed by The Associated
   Press asked not to be identified for fear of losing their jobs -- they
   are prohibited by the bureau from talking to reporters. Up to a half
   million census takers started hitting the streets last week to knock on
   the doors of around 56 million homes that haven't yet responded to the
   2020 census. The AP talked to two census takers in California, two in
   Alaska and one each in Florida and Massachusetts, and the concerns they
   raised were similar.

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