Residents Who Don't Fill Out Census Cost Tewksbury Thousands of Dollars

Residents who fail to fill out their municipal census form will not only get dropped from the active voting rolls, they also cost the town thousands of dollars every year.

According to Town Clerk Denise Graffeo, more than 4,000 households have failed to fill out and return the town census forms that were sent out back in January.

The "drop-dead" date to return the census forms is June 1. Two things will happen regarding the forms that are not returned by that date.

The first is that residents who have not returned census forms will be dropped from the voting rolls. According to Graffeo, this means before being allowed to vote at the Special Senate Election on June 25th, “inactive “voters will be required to provide ID matching the address listed on the Voter’s List as well as complete an Affirmation form of Current and Continuous Residency.

Voters would not be inactivated prior to the April 30 Special Senate Primary and at Town Meeting in May.

The second issue is financial. The town is required to send out notifications to each resident who does not return their census,

Any voter who does not respond to the annual census by the first Monday in June is made inactive and must be sent a confirmation notice by the Town Clerk.  This mailing notifies the voter that their name has been removed from the active voting list and has been placed on the inactive voting list and provides the voter with an opportunity to activate themselves by signing the postage prepaid return card and returning it to the Town Clerk’s Office.

According to Graffeo, these mailings costs around a dollar each. That means this year's notifications could cost the town more than $4,000.

"We're hoping that as many people as possible will fill out their census forms and return them to our office," said Graffeo. "If people need a new form, they can either download a blank one from off the web site or they can come to the office and we can give them a new form (filled in) with all of their information."

Town Census numbers are also used to determine state aid and grant awards.