The U.S. Census Bureau
is carefully monitoring the coronavirus
(COVID-19) situation and will follow the guidance of federal,
state and local health authorities. We have also established the
Census Bureau COVID-19 Internal Task Force to continuously monitor the
situation and update our Pandemic Addendum to the Census Bureau Continuity of
Operations (COOP) Plan. Our preparation and
contingency planning centers on two key principles: The health and safety of our
staff and the public is of the utmost consideration and importance. We must
fulfill our constitutional obligation to deliver the 2020 Census counts to the
President of the United States on schedule, and we must adhere to our core task
of counting everyone once, only once, and in the right place.The key message right
now for anyone with questions about how COVID-19 will affect the 2020
Census: It has never been easier to respond on your own, whether online, over the phone or by
mail—all without having to meet a census taker.
From the US Census Bureau
Website, March 11th
By constitutional mandate, every ten
years, it’s time for an official governmental tally of exactly how many people are
where… in the United States. Not how many citizens there are or folks with
permanent residence status. People. Even visitors. It’s time for the US Census.
The US Census Bureau (part of the US Department of Commerce) expects to have engaged
a cadre of half a million census takers to work between May and July. But this
just may be the peak time for the spread of COVID-19, and just what most folks
do not want to see is a stranger at their door wanting some face time.
But the Census is critical for
everything from the number of House seats given to each state to the allocation
of federal aid and support. Planning and budgeting are a direct function of the
statistics generated by that effort. In short, we really rely heavily on that.
“State governments use the data to redraw legislative districts, while cities
use it to determine where to build schools and police stations, which roads get
repaired first, even whether to put in a crosswalk at an intersection.
Businesses use the data to determine where to grow, and nonprofits use the
figures to decide where they can be of the most help… An undercount would have
a decade of repercussions for communities.” Los Angeles Times, March 13th.
Like many efforts from the Trump
administration, there have been attempts to suppress the numbers of
non-citizens, under false premises, who would be counted for various
governmental purposes. Or even citizens unlikely to support a GOP tickets. Like
the much-touted description of massive voter fraud, which is in fact virtually
non-existent, to justify required government IDs to cast a ballot. Although
stopped by a federal court because of the rather unsubtle background discussion
showing an absolute attempt to discriminate, the Department of Commerce also
sought to impose a Census question on US citizenship, a deterrent to already
skeptical undocumented residents from even responding. Legally, everyone in the
country is required by law to respond, but that has been fairly been ignored by
enforcing authorities.
There are also real questions about
how COVID-19 will impact the accuracy of the numbers. Those census takers have
always been our insurance that even the suspicious and the reluctant would be
polled. Even if folks do not mail in their forms, the human contact often
forced compliance and maximized accuracy. But as you can see from the above
post on the Census Bureau website, people are encouraged to provide their
totally private and confidential (not everyone believes that) information in
ways where no physical human contact is required.
So, let’s start with the telephone in
a robocall, easily traceable universe. Folks are not likely to respond to
someone calling them, and so the Census Bureau has to rely on folks calling in
on designated phone lines to report Census data. Assuming they can read the
information-request form they have been sent… and not tossed it in the trash.
Most people are going to get a very short list of questions, but there are a
significant number who, randomly, will get a rather long and detailed request
for personal information. Where census takers are often required to push for a
full and complete response. For a few, mailing in a response, postage prepaid,
is an alternative… but if you tossed out or ignored the letter from the bureau,
it is the census taker who has to press in person.
Hey, how about the ability to respond
online? If you have a smart phone or a computer. But in communities of
minorities, either because of age or income, what if they don’t have a computer
or a smart phone. These are precisely the voters that the Trump administration
hopes will fail to provide Census information. The individuals that are likely
to lean left or demand more in the way of federally supported services. Particularly
from states like California and New York. Blue. That blue states generally pay
more in taxes than they receive in federal benefits (the only blue state where
that is not true is Oregon), the opposite of a majority of red states, seems to
get lost in translation.
Basically, census takers’ primary
responsibility to collect information from individuals who do not voluntarily
comply or who may be outside of their established mailing lists. Hand sanitizer
and distancing protocols notwithstanding, it seems fairly obvious that census
takers now have a major uphill battle just to attempt to count everyone. It is
hard to stop this massive snowball from rolling down the mountain. The last
time the Census was postponed – five months in 1920 by reason of the Spanish
Flu – the Census process was not infused with all of these current political
desires to manipulate the results.
But if we want a fair count, we just
might need to do more than delay or extend the process. “‘If you are in an
environment where public health professionals are telling you to be safe [and
keep your distance], it’s just another challenge to recruiting people to do
that good, important work,’ said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who recently sent a
letter with other U.S. senators asking the Census Bureau how it plans to
conduct an accurate 2020 census during the outbreak and what it is doing to
protect census workers…
“Smith is working with the agency to
schedule a briefing for Congress about how coronavirus might affect its work as
well as the ability to get an accurate count… Although the census is promoting
online responses, ‘we also know there are a lot of people for whom that just is
not going to work,’ Smith said. Many of the same people who don’t have home
internet access are among the most difficult to count, she added.
“And the outbreak may continue to get
worse during key periods of the count… ‘We don’t know where we are going to be
in terms of our ability to test or where in the arc of this virus we’re going
to be’ when it is time for census takers to visit homes, Smith said… She said
she wants specific details about how the census plans to retain enough census
takers to reach those who don’t respond online, by phone or by mail.
“Hoping to curtail the worst of the
coronavirus outbreak, which the World Health Organization declared a pandemic
Wednesday [3/11], public schools and universities have closed. Businesses are
urging employees to work from home…
“In some areas, such as college
campuses that have closed down or neighborhoods that have been quarantined,
there might be a delay or disruption to the census, but the bureau has a
reserve budget to allow it to move offices, hire extra workers or send extra
mailings in case of an emergency, Cook said. No delays or changes have been
made yet, though the bureau has created a task force to decide when it might be
needed.
“‘We’ll adapt to make sure we’re
getting the same population counted another way,’ [said Census Bureau spokesman
Michael Cook]… He emphasized that college students should report living at
their college address, even if the school has sent them home.” LA Times. What
could possibly go wrong? I can see court challenges to the Census results from
all kinds of groups/states likely to be undercounted by this process. Accuracy
is the only justifiable mandate!
I’m
Peter Dekom, and it is difficult to trust an administration controlling the
Census after they have overtly stated that they wish to contain and marginalize
minorities as voters or as federal supplicants.
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