by: Dan Martin  (c)copyright 2010

Apparently, the U.S. Census Bureau did not get the memo.

Everyone in our hometown has a Post Office Box. We do not pay anything for them. Our only choice in the matter is a) P.O. Box or b) no mail. There is no house-to-house delivery in our town.

We are not unique in this. There are at least eleven other towns within 12.5 miles of where I sit that have the same arrangement for getting their mail.

Today I learned from our Agent In Charge (read: Postmaster) that all of the Census forms were returned because they bore addresses that, technically, do not exist. The Census Bureau, according to the Agent, does not send Census forms to P.O. Boxes. The Post Office is not at liberty to “box” the mail, even if the box number is a part of the address or the zip code.

The Agent will mercifully remain unnamed. That person does not make policy; their responsibility is merely to carry it out.

According to the Census Bureau: More