Bureau website goes live

Counting begins in earnest

ORLANDO, FLA. » The 2020 census is off and running for much of America now.

The U.S. Census Bureau made a soft launch of the 2020 census website Monday, making its form available online. On Thursday, the Census Bureau will begin mailing out notices far and wide.

For the bureau, the once-a-decade head count is akin to running a sprint and marathon at the same time. It takes a while, but there’s plenty of action throughout.

“It is that intense ... counting up to 330 million people in a very diverse, very mobile population, and over 140 million housing units,” Stephen Buckner, a senior Census Bureau executive, said during a recent visit to Miami.

The bureau had an official in-person launch in January in Toksook Bay, Alaska. Mail service is spotty and internet connectivity is unreliable in remote Alaska, making door-to-door canvassing the best way to gather responses. The Alaska villages get a head start over the rest of the nation because many residents scatter each spring to subsistence hunting and fishing grounds.

There has been a U.S. census every decade since 1790. The results determine how many congressional seats each state gets and how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed.

The 2020 census is the first in which most people are being encouraged to answer the questions online, though people can still answer the questionnaire by telephone or by mailing back a paper form if they prefer.

The notices mailed out starting this week will include a census ID that matches addresses. People filling out the form via the internet are encouraged to use the ID, but those who answer the questions online before getting their IDs still will be counted.

“The best user experience is provided with a Census ID,” the bureau said in a statement Monday evening.

About 80% of households receiving mailings will get notices about how to answer the questions online, and about 20% of households automatically will receive a paper ballot if there are large numbers of seniors in their neighborhood or levels of internet connectivity are low.

Census workers won’t begin going door-to-door in earnest until May, when they’ll approach homes that haven’t responded and ask the questions in person. Bureau officials are monitoring the spread of the novel coronavirus, which could disrupt the door-todoor phase.