The U.S. government will be sending out

mailers in a couple of weeks, but some political parties are conducting a census too, which is confusing many people.

One Knox County resident told WVLT News that he received a census mailer conducted by the Republican National Committee. He was not fooled by the mailer after reading through it, but he said some people may be.

"Anybody that fills this out and sends it in thinking that this a Census form, might not actually fill out the Census, so I don't know how many of these were sent out or if there's a way to find out how many were sent out, but even five percent of that could definitely affect the representation in this county," said Judson Hall, a Knox County resident.

The Census Hall received is marked with the "2020 Congressional District Census" and indicates that is is "Commissioned by the Republican Party".

WVLT News reached out to both the Republican and Democratic Parties to clarify the purpose of the mailers.

“Mailers are clearly marked that they are from the Republican National Committee." said an RNC Official.

John Anderson, a spokesperson with the 2020 Census said there are a few red indicators that the Census form you are filling out is not from the government.

"The most personal information that we ask for is your name and your age," said Anderson. "If you see anything else, any forms that ask for more detailed information...we would never ask for any sort of donations of any kind, we would never ask for your bank account information, we would never ask for your social security number, so if you see any of these things, those are immediate red flags that they are not us."

According to Anderson, the 2020 Census mailers will be sent out March 12th, so if you have received anything in the mail that says Census before then, it's not from the U.S. government.

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