Merced County census response hits extreme low, coronavirus poses challenge for counters
Coming only once a decade, the 2020 Census unfortunately coincided with the coronavirus pandemic. Now, officials worry how current restrictions will affect getting an accurate count.
As of Wednesday, U.S. census data showed 51.7% of Merced County households have completed the census, compared to the state self-response rate of 55.7%.
“It couldn’t have happened at a worse time,” Senator Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, said of the pandemic. Her District 12 stretches from Modesto past Coalinga, encompassing Merced County.
During the last census in 2010, Merced County also fell behind the state at a 63.8% self-response rate compared to 68.2%.
Besides tallying the nation’s population, the census count helps decide regional funding and resources, and plays a role in determining how many elected representatives an area gets and the drawing of district lines for federal and state governments over the next decade.
When an area is under-counted, for a decade it misses out on the funds, resources and representation it should be receiving. That means less money allocated toward regional block grants, highways, schools and more.
“The resources would be much reduced,” Caballero said. “That would be really devastating.”
Plus, the economic fallout due to coronavirus-related shutdowns means it will be especially important that already historically underfunded San Joaquin Valley communities get the help they need to recover, she said.
Additional complications
Compounding the issue is that the poorest regions tend to be the most difficult to accurately count, Caballero said. She said District 12 has the fourth lowest census participation in the state. Plus, Valley communities from Modesto down to Bakersfield are all historically among the lowest counted.
Planada, for example, had one of the lowest response rates in Merced County and overall during the 2010 census, Caballero said. “That’s really too bad, that’s a community that needs resources,” she said.
Areas like Planada and others throughout the Valley have a higher number of hard-to-count populations. Those populations can include migrant workers, renters, people with low spoken or written English proficiency, and undocumented immigrants. Also, many people do not trust the government in those areas.
Normally, census takers (enumerators) tally those hard-to-count populations by knocking on doors of households who have failed to self-respond. But now, social distancing precautions have turned those plans on their heads while officials scramble to innovate new ways to get an accurate count.
“(Enumeration) was supposed to begin just around the time the governor declared a stay-at-home order,” Caballero said. “People were contracted to do this work, and now there is no work.”
Adapting to the times
The entire 2020 census timeline is being pushed back by about six months, if not more, Caballero said.
The self-response deadline has been moved from the end of July to October, giving households significantly more time to respond despite existing hurdles.
Followup visits by census takers to unresponsive households in May through June have been pushed back to August through October to avoid exposing enumerators and households to coronavirus.
“We’re going to have to work a lot harder, and work on different strategies,” Caballero said. “We can’t go door to door.”
The state has allocated a significant amount of money into social and traditional media campaigns to get the word out about completing the census and the extended deadlines, Caballero said. However, “That doesn’t move people to actually fill out the paperwork,” she noted.
Officials are advising individuals to complete the census online, but Caballero said this leaves households without internet access more vulnerable to being skipped over.
It also fails to assuage suspicious households that their information is confidential and will not be used against them. For example, there is no census question about citizenship, and wary undocumented individuals are not at risk by responding to the census.
“That’s the kind of door to door stuff you do that’s really important,” Caballero said.
Trusted messengers within communities will be needed to get the word out to households skeptical of the census, she said.
One way to reach people during the pandemic could be disseminating information via local food banks. Pamphlets inside food bags could draw attention to the importance of the census, as the federal money allocated to community food banks is determined by census counts, Caballero said.
Another idea she noted is an awareness campaign similar to the “I Voted” stickers during election season.
The unprecedented impact to the census is forcing officials to get creative in obtaining an accurate count, Caballero said.
“I think we’ll come up with some methods that we’ll use 10 years from now,” she said.
Households can respond to the census online, via phone at (844) 330-2020 or by mail until Oct. 31.
This story was originally published May 2, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
