Census Day arrives with U.S. in state of paralysis

ORLANDO, FLA. >> Census Day — the date used to determine where a person lives for the once-a-decade count — arrived Wednesday with a nation almost paralyzed by the spread of the novel coronavirus. But census officials vowed the job would be completed by its year-end deadline.

The virus’s spread has forced the U.S. Census Bureau to suspend field operations for a month, from midMarch to mid-April, when the hiring process would be ramping up for up to 500,000 temporary census takers. The bureau also has delayed the start of counts for the homeless and people living in group quarters like college dorms and nursing homes, and has pushed back the deadline for wrapping up the head count from the end of July to mid-August.

The Census Bureau is required by federal statute to send the president the counts that will be used to carve up congressional districts — a process known as apportionment — and draw state legislative districts by Dec. 31. Some groups are suggesting that the deadline be pushed back, though it’s currently mandated by federal law.

“We are laser-focused on the statute’s Dec. 31 deadline for apportionment counts and population counts. We will continue to assess all of our operations to see if there are any changes that need to be made,” Michael Cook, chief of the Public Information Office at the U.S. Census Bureau, said Tuesday.

The head count started in late January in rural, native villages in Alaska, but the rest of the country wasn’t able to start answering the questionnaire until the second week of March when the Census Bureau’s self-response website went live and people received notices in the mail that they could start answering the questions. But that was only a week before many governors and mayors started issuing stay-at-home orders to slow the virus’s spread, greatly hindering in-person rallies, meetings and door-knocking by activists to raise awareness about the 2020 census.

Experts say connecting with trusted community leaders in person is the best way to reach people in hard-to-count groups that may be wary of the federal government.

“There is the issue of attention. Certainly when folks are anxious about the public health issue, and kids are away from school, and they’re being away from work, it’s a concern that the census isn’t on top of people’s mind as you would want it to be,” said Thomas Saenz, president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.