Census Bureau officials are getting some good practice counting their troubles this week, after GAO added the 2010 census to its "high risk" watchlist. In testimony to the Senate committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, GAO raised "serious questions" about the Bureau's readiness for the decennial census. Among the concerns were mismanagement of information technology, the elimination of key dress rehearsals, and technical problems with the handheld devices used to collect census data. The devices performed poorly in a 2007 field test. 

GAO noted way back in 2005 that the Census was an emerging risk, and made management recommendations that Bureau officials apparently never acted on. The situation is now so dire that U.S. Comptroller General David Walker announced the special out-of-cycle addition of Census to the high-risk list.

"Because the census is one of the foundations for many government decisions, threats to a timely and reliable census can affect the public’s confidence in government," the GAO report said. 

Frankly, it's always been a mystery to us how the Census works even half as well as it does. We're not even sure how many people work for OhMyGov! on a given day. But the importance of an accurate and trusted Census can't be overstated. And that makes this a story to watch.