A report from the Commerce Department’s Inspector General (OIG) on the 2026 Census Test was recently released, including warnings about effectiveness on the part of Census Bureau enumerators. Of concern to the OIG, enumerators were observed not following “interview procedures” and using “their personal phones to locate” housing units.
The OIG wasn’t allowed to observe postal workers who participated.
The 2026 Census Test ran from May 1 to August 31. In the test, both postal workers and Census Bureau enumerators visited housing units “to obtain demographic information from households that did not complete the test questionnaire online. The enumerators used bureau-provided mobile phones to record household information in an application called MOJO Casey that is connected to the bureau’s operational control system. This application allows enumerators to manage aspects of their work, such as identifying addresses to visit, accessing maps to locate addresses, recording responses to the questionnaire during in-person interviews, and documenting work availability, actual time worked, and mileage expenses.”
While the OIG was supposed to evaluate the test’s effectiveness “in validating operational, technological, and methodological innovations designed to enhance cost efficiency, data quality, and response rates for the 2030 census,” the U.S. Postal Service refused OIG access to directly observe postal workers during the test in June. USPS did grant access to OIG and the General Accountability Office (GAO) “to conduct joint observations of Flight A USPS mail carriers on August 11-12, 2026,” but the report does not cover that.
The Bureau has not commented on the report.
- Operational Issues Observed During the 2026 Census Test. (REPORT NO. OIG-26-028-I) September 21, 2026. https://www.oig.doc.gov/wp-content/OIGPublications/OIG-26-028-I-SECURED.pdf
