COMMENTARY : They Can’t Find Census Takers? 1 Reason Why

Because I’ve been a loyal precinct worker at our local polling place for 14 years, I got a form letter in the mail just a week ago from the registrar-recorder of Los Angeles County requesting help for census taking. A phone number was provided plus a brief description of available jobs. The man who answered my call said I would need to have an interview, take a test. He also told me that I should bring three kinds of identification plus two personal references the next morning at 9:45 to their Westside office. I did.

When I arrived at the office, the receptionist wanted to know what I was there for, the interview or the test. I guessed the test. There were about 20 people waiting for the same reason, and eventually we were conducted to an inside examination room where we were briefed by the tester and her overly officious assistant, who could only be described as unhelpful and impolite. A lengthy set of application forms were passed out, and when these were finally completed, signed, and collected, verification of individual ID documents began.

I had brought my driver’s license, Social Security card, and an old U.S. passport, expired in 1978, which the tester said wasn’t acceptable as proper ID, even though nowhere was it written nor mentioned that the passport had to be current. The tester seemed unaware that a U.S. passport, current or not, is proof of citizenship, a necessary qualification for census-taking employment.

I looked around at the other applicants, many of whom looked quite needy, even desperate, for work, and wondered how many had ever had a passport, let alone a current one.

Eventually, a four-part test was passed out, and after being told how to fill in responses, we were given exactly 30 minutes to answer at least 40 questions designed to measure so-called proficiency in reading, math and organizational and clerical skills. Although not mentioned, it was also clearly designed to indicate intelligence, reasoning, and eyesight (ability to read fine print).

Having taken college courses, I’m no dummy, but I could not finish in time, needing at least 10 more minutes for noodling out such things as numerical sequences, and again I wondered how many applicants were also hung up. During the test, the assistant had also made me nervous, as she stood over me personally, watching how I filled in the answer sheet, and commented loudly that I was doing it incorrectly. I wasn’t, and I was tempted to walk out!

This same person loudly commented on my application as well, remarking what a long time it had been since I was gainfully employed. I saw my last paycheck in 1947; I’ve been a homemaker and raised a family in the meantime, but so what? I may be 64 years old and not as adventuresome, quick, and spry as at 21, but I do have the time, intelligence, curiosity, and a car to qualify for the job I applied for--enumerator.

Believe me, this total experience was a real downer. Such a humiliating, ineffectual screening process will discourage many bona fide, capable people from getting involved. If one doesn’t need the money, ($7.50 per hour) one sure doesn’t need the insult.

Laszlo is a resident of Santa Monica. She wrote in response to an article by staff writer Josh Meyer in the March 22 Westside edition of The Times about the difficulty in finding census enumerators in the Westside.