Assemblyman Cusick was on hand at the Staten Island Mall to exhort Islanders to return their forms. During the last Census, in 2000, 62% of Richmond County residents sent back their questionnaires. The Island currently leads the boroughs in compliance, with Manhattan second at 40 percent, the Bronx at 36 percent, Queens at 34 percent and Brooklyn lagging at 30 percent.

Marianne Maloney, a Census partnership specialist, emphasized the importance of an accurate count: "People always complain, 'we need this, we need that,' but the one thing they can do is fill out the form."

Those who have multiple homes and therefore multiple forms should complete one form only. Your primary residence is where you live six months plus one day out of the year. Fill out that form, but also return any surplus forms with a short explanation of your living arrangements near the bar code. If possible, send the two forms together.

If you do not send back the extra forms, the Census Bureau adds that address to a list of missing response locations that enumerators must visit starting the first week of May.

For those with multiple families within a single dwelling, such as a side apartment, it is not necessary to fill out two different forms so long as all individuals are accounted for. For instance, if there is an in-law residing downstairs, include them in your Census response. The bureau encourages homeowners to ensure tenants have filled out the Census as well. "We don't care if you're a citizen or not, we just want you counted. The more people we count, the more money we get," said Ms. Maloney.

As to why 38 percent of Islanders did not respond during the last Census, Assemblyman Michael Cusick speculated, "I think people get so much mail and they put it [the Census] aside and forget about it." Port Richmond resident Greg Wilton echoed the sentiment, noting that "they [residents] feel like they don't get anything out of it. The bureau should do it online."

Cusick termed the 2010 Census "a call to arms for all Staten Islanders," and Rep. Michael McMahon explained that Census participation is key to representation and federal funding. "It's a matter of dollars and cents," McMahon said. Each Islander's response is worth $3,000 per person per year. "We can't get our fair share if people don't fill it out. Without a proper count, we won't get proper representation."

This representation helps generate aid for improving Island highways, schools, health care, transit and infrastructure until the next Census, in 2020.

For those preferring to not answer aspects of the 10-question form, such as race, enumerators will also call these individuals to fill in the missing information. Partial or missing answers cause delays in tallying the final numbers, and cost about $85 million in follow-up visits and materials sent.

The bureau anticipates visits to non-responders will stop in July, and plans to have the complete evaluation available to President Obama by December of this year. The results will be published online in March 2011.