CENSUS COUNT ENDS TODAY: Community leaders nationwide decry effect of Supreme Court Ruling and Call on Congress to Save the Census 

WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed a federal District Court decision and allowed the government to stop counting households two weeks earlier than planned. The Census Bureau quickly announced a new deadline for Census responses: today, Thursday October 15, 2020.

In a media briefing call today, community leaders described how their states would be affected by the sudden end to census counting and shortened data processing timeline. A list of participants and time speaking is below.

A recording of today’s call is available at https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/QlUJl5wPu4AuKauPjedNDOXA3lBANK95ay3Uc6KYxdfMZay2k2KD2fooiLD5oc1r.apa2ldp_U7lj8yEv.

This unexpected shortening of the 2020 Census counting period has disrupted outreach efforts by grassroots groups, civic leaders, ministers, and leaders around the nation working to ensure ‘a complete count’ — including people in communities undercounted by previous censuses.

Accurate 2020 Census data are critical for the prudent, fair allocation of federal resources to states and localities for the next decade, especially to support economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and with emergency preparedness and response in natural disaster zones. The administration asked Congress in April to extend the statutory deadlines and set a clear path forward by pushing back those deadlines by 120 days each. The bipartisan, bicameral 2020 Census Deadline Extensions Act bills — S. 4571 (Schatz/Murkowski/Sullivan) and H.R. 8250 (Young/Gallego) — would extend the statutory deadlines for apportionment and redistricting by 120 days each and extend the data collection timeline through October 31, 2020.

Administration and Census Bureau staff agree — The Census Bureau cannot produce an accurate or complete count by December 31, 2020.

Households can ensure they are counted:

• ONLINE at 2020Census.gov by October 15, 2020 at 11:59 pm Hawaii Standard Time (HST) (6:00 am Eastern Daylight Time on October 16, 2020)
• BY PHONE at 844-330-2020 (English) or 844-468-2020 (Spanish) by 2 a.m. ET on October 16 for the Spanish and English phone lines, and by 10 p.m. ET on October 15 for the other non English, non Spanish phone lines.
• PAPER census questionnaires must be postmarked by October 15, 2020.

According to Steven Romalewski and the CUNY Mapping Service at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, self-response rates in communities of color nationwide – with the exception of predominantly Asian tracts – tend to be lower than non-Hispanic White communities, and also tend to be lower than the U.S. self-response rate overall; and the majority of census tracts that are predominantly Black, Hispanic, or American Indian – and a substantial share of Asian tracts – still have response rates that are less than the final rates in these areas in 2010. This means that on a nationwide basis, communities of color needed a greater share of door-knocking enumeration than non-Hispanic White communities.

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Contact David Vance dvance@commoncause.org for speakers’ contact information.