Editorial: Alabama’s census success depends on you
Alabama is poised to lose a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, but you can help prevent that from happening by taking a few minutes to participate in the 2020 census count.
State and local officials are scrambling this week to ramp up final efforts to improve the state’s 61.8% response rate. The effort got more complicated when federal officials announced they would wrap up field data collection at the end of September. That’s one month earlier than the original Oct. 31 deadline.
In the midst of the frantic news cycle of 2020, the urgent matter of successfully completing the U.S. census isn’t capturing enough people’s attention.
Census forms were delivered to American homes months ago, but the pandemic has made it difficult for the officials to capture enough people’s attention for this once-a-decade count.
The national self-response rate of 64.9% isn’t a whole lot better than Alabama’s rate, but then only 10 states have a congressional seat at stake — Alabama, California, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and West Virginia.
It’s important for Madison-area residents to remember that they have the power to prevent an undercount, and thus protect Alabama’s seven seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and its nine electoral votes. How?
You can also be alert for local efforts planned in the weeks ahead to improve our response rate. Field workers have begun their door-to-door efforts.
Filling out the census form just takes a few minutes, but taking part in it has an immense impact because the census is so important.
The count determines how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed. Those federal funds help pay for home heating in winter, assistance with food expenses, and help with health care for those who can’t afford it on their own. Distribution of funds for those programs is determined by census data.
The census is mandated by the Constitution, and participation by every American household is required by law.
So don’t wait any longer. If you haven’t done it already, take a few minutes to complete this simple task and help the Madison area and all of Alabama.
