By Taylor Dixon
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—Census takers across the country this week have begun following up with households who have yet to respond to the 2020 census.
So far more than 90 million households have responded to the census either via phone, mail or online and last month census takers had started gathering information door-to-door in some areas. Now 500,000 employees are checking with about 56 million households across the country on their responses.
The census determines how many seats a state will hold in Congress and how much funding they will receive for health care, schools, jobs, roads and bridges. For the first time, though, the census can be done over the phone or online as well as by mail.
Emails will be sent by the Census Bureau to people in communities with a less than 50% response rate urging them to respond to the census as soon as possible to ensure census takers will have less households to visit when collecting responses.
In a joint statement with the Centers for Disease Control, the Census Bureau laid out protocols for census takers to ensure everyone’s safety. Precautions include wearing a mask, social distancing, washing and sanitizing hands, and ensuring all interviews take place outside of a house. All residents are recommended to follow the guidelines as they talk to census takers as well.
In order to reach more people, the bureau has launched an advertisement campaign that will include 45 different languages. English and 12 others will be most used for print, television commercials, radio and other outdoor media while 21 other languages will be covered in print ads in newspapers, as well as 11 languages used for online search support.
The campaign began Aug. 3 and will run through Sept. 27. There has been $700 million in funding the public education and outreach of this project that will include more than 1,000 ads.
The 2020 census deadline to submit responses in Sept. 30, but the Census Bureau is urging everyone to get their responses in as soon as possible.
Taylor Dixon is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
