Paul Sancya / AP
This Sunday, April 5, 2020, photo shows an envelope containing a 2020 Census letter mailed to a U.S. resident in Detroit.
Wednesday, May 27, 2020 | 2 a.m.
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Thousands of households in Las Vegas recently began receiving packages on their doorsteps containing something valuable for the recipients and our entire community — a U.S. Census questionnaire.
The Census Bureau reported that hand-delivered forms are going to about 50,000 Clark County households that did not respond to questionnaires that were mailed out beginning in March.
To anyone who hasn’t participated in the census yet, here’s a strong show of support for taking the few minutes needed to fill out the form.
Nearly 60% of Southern Nevada households have already returned forms — 59.4%, to be exact — which is encouraging. We’re just 0.2% off the national average of 59.6%.
Now, here’s hoping the remainder will jump on board. For the region and the entire state, there’s a lot at stake.
That includes $675 billion in federal funding that is apportioned on a per-capita basis. The government relies on census data in developing its formula for distribution of those funds, so a full headcount in the census is critical in ensuring that Nevada gets its fair share of the money. This funding supports our infrastructure, social service programs, education and health care systems, and more. For Nevada, it amounts to $8 billion.
To put the importance of census participation in context, consider that state officials estimated Nevada would lose nearly $170 million in funding for health care and child welfare programs alone over the next decade if just 1% of residents failed to respond to the census. To put it in a different light, officials say that for every person who participates in the census, the state will receive $1,600 in funding for infrastructure, Medicaid and other government programs.
In addition, census results are used to apportion congressional seats. And while demographics experts say it’s unlikely that Nevada could gain a fifth U.S. House seat this year, Nevadans can help protect our four current seats by responding to the census.
Taking part in the headcount is easy, and can be done in three ways:
• By returning the form by mail
• Online by visiting 2020census.gov/en/ways-to-respond/responding-online.html
• By toll-free phone call: 844-330-2020 for English, 844-468-2020 for Spanish; and 844-478-2020 for Tagalog.
Unfortunately, rumors have sprung up about the census, along with scams and an appalling effort by Republican Party political operatives to create confusion about it. The GOP mailed out millions of forms that could easily be mistaken for official U.S. Census questionnaires — they were identified as products of the Republican Party only in tiny type. It was an obvious attempt to dupe Americans into thinking they were responding to the official census and believing the actual forms were duplicates that didn’t need to be returned.
Here are a few fundamental facts about the census, which we’d encourage readers to pass along:
• Undocumented immigrants are counted, and are heavily encouraged to respond so that the census reflects a true headcount. This is critically important: The census form does not include a citizenship question, and the Census Bureau is barred by law from sharing information with law enforcement or anyone else.
• The Census Bureau does not ask for Social Security numbers of bank account information, nor does it request money or donations. Anything purporting to be a census that asks for this information is fraudulent and should be reported at the number below.
• All census workers are required to carry a Census Bureau ID with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark and an expiration date.
• As for the GOP mailing or something similar, Nevadans who are confused over whether they filled out an official form can contact the bureau at 844-330.2020 or 775-431-0464 to confirm they responded to the census, ask a question or report a scam. Also, images of all of the bureau’s official mailings are posted at 2020census.gov/en/mailings.html for comparison.
Nevada is off to a good start in the census. Now, those 50,000 households that are receiving forms are like the anchor runners on a relay team: We need them to come through and help us finish strong.
