“I thought it was my obligation and kept thinking it would be here any day,” Beaver said. “But every time I checked my mailbox, there was no form inside.”
Beaver said approximately 100 people live in the 10-building apartment complex. While she has not spoken with every single resident, she said everyone she has gotten a hold of shares her tale of nonexistent census forms.
With the deadline for submitting completed forms looming later this month, Beaver made contact with the post office to see if the documents were even delivered.
“They didn’t have an answer for me,” she said.
Middletown Postmaster Gregory Engel has heard of “a couple people here and there” who have not received the forms, but called it “nothing out of the ordinary.”
“I do know the census is doing a second mailing on (Monday) April 12 for people who may not have gotten it yet,” Engel said.
Donna Marsh, media specialist with the southwest Ohio Census team, said she is “happy to hear people want to be counted.” The government sent out an estimated 40 million duplicate forms on April 1, according to Marsh, with a focus on low-response areas from the initial mailing.
Marsh scoffed at the idea of a "census thief," but said such a person would have nothing to gain.
“If there is a census thief out there, I would tell him to stop wasting his time.
“We’ll be very persistent in making sure every person is counted.”
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