Poll Finds More Republicans Warming to the Census

(March 16) -- Despite months of skepticism from conservative politicians and pundits, at least as many Republicans as Democrats now say they are certain to participate in the 2010 census, a new poll finds.

According to a Pew Research Center poll conducted March 10-14, 74 percent of Republicans surveyed said they "definitely will" participate in the census. That number is up 20 percentage points from when Pew asked the same question the week of Jan. 6-10.

The strong showing of support for the census among Republicans comes after months of criticism from conservative figures.

Ross D. Franklin, AP

At least as many Republicans as Democrats claim they will fill out census forms this year, according to a Pew Research Center poll.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, for instance, declared in a June interview with The Washington Times that she would limit her participation in this year's census.

"I know for my family the only question we will be answering is how many people are in our home," the Minnesota Republican said. "We won't be answering any information beyond that, because the Constitution doesn't require any information beyond that."

Conservative pundit Michelle Malkin said in October that the census has a liberal bias. "There's the troubling alliance between the Census Bureau and the aggressively partisan Service Employees International Union -- whose many leading officials and organizing tactics are inextricably intertwined with the disgraced personnel and methods of the ACORN community organizing racket," Malkin wrote.

Meanwhile, 72 percent of Democrats polled said their participation in the census was assured, up five percentage points from the January survey. And 67 percent of independents said they are certain to participate, up 13 points since Jan.

Regardless of party, 87 percent of Americans say they "probably will" or "definitely will" participate in the census. Seventy-nine percent of those polled say they consider filling out the census forms a "civic responsibility," and 73 percent said they did not believe that the census aided a particular political party.

Just 54 percent of those polled, however, correctly identified the main purpose of the census as helping determine the number of representatives each state can send to Congress, a 10-point decline from the January survey.

For its latest figures, Pew interviewed 1,500 adults living in the continental United States. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.