The Grayson County Sheriff's Office now says two women they warned residents were pretending to be census takers Wednesday night are in fact actual U.S. Census workers.

The Sheriff's Office says a person in Bells told deputies two different women knocked on their door in the past couple of weeks claiming to work for the Census Bureau.

Sheriff Tom Watt says they have confirmed the two women were in fact official U.S. Census employees conducting related surveys.

"Unfortunately, the census employees in question were conducting the survey without the knowledge of local leaders or regional US Census officials," Watt said in an emailed statement to news outlets. "Therefore, their activities could not be immediately confirmed as legitimate.”

The sheriff's office says it will be working with local law enforcement to provide additional authentication tools to verify the employment of census takers in the area.

“We want to provide the most accurate, up-to-date information so that our citizens understand and trust the process and feel safe in participating fully in the 2020 US Census," Watt said.

The Sheriff's office released the following timeline for official 2020 U.S. Census activities:

February – March: Census enumerators are currently conducting Group Quarters counts, i.e. counts for nursing homes, college dorms, assisted living facilities, etc.

March 13th -20th: Official census questionnaires are scheduled to arrive in residential mailboxes throughout Grayson County

April: Early non-response follow-up primarily for areas around colleges/universities where the population leaves before early May.

May: US Census takers will follow up with a door-to-door effort with residences that have not responded.

July: Deadline to submit all census responses