John Raoux / AP
A briefcase of a census taker is seen as she knocks on the door of a residence Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020, in Winter Park, Fla.
Monday, Oct. 5, 2020 | 8:04 p.m.
A monthlong extension of census gathering efforts ordered by a federal judge last week has Nevada activists hopeful about continuing their outreach, especially toward traditionally hard-to-count communities.
The Census Bureau had previously planned to end the count on Monday, but an extension to Oct. 31 was given last week by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in California.
In Nevada, almost every citizen has been contacted in some way for the census, said Emily Zamora, the executive director of Silver State Voices and part of the state’s Complete Count Committee.
Zamora said the self-response rate is 66.3%, which is up from 2010 when the response rate was 61.4%.
“It’s good, right? It’s still a higher number than 2010, but we want more people to actually self-respond,” Zamora said.
If residents don’t participate in the census, she said, the bureau will look for other ways to determine how many people are in the state.
“The best way to tell the stories of our community is actually from them filling out the census, not from the census enumerators asking neighbors ‘how many people do you know here’ or trying to get any other data,” Zamora said.
Lt. Gov. Kate Marshall, who heads the Complete Count Committee, said in late August that “because our population grows so much faster than other states, we still have work to do.”
The census determines federal funding distributed to the state for the next 10 years, meaning every count is crucial in securing funds.
“It is estimated that Nevada will lose $64.9 million each year if 12% of Latinx residents are undercounted in the #2020Census. Funding that can go towards health clinics, WIC, health care and so much more,” a tweet from Chispa Nevada read.
A report from the George Washington Institute for Public Policy at George Washington University showed that Nevada received about $6.2 billion in fiscal year 2016 from 55 federal programs subject to a population count.
“We, right now, are trying to think up creative ways on how to reach (these communities),” Zamora said.
The Nevadans Count coalition of organizations pushing for census participation has hired a truck with a large screen to display pro-census messaging in parts of Las Vegas.
“We’re hoping that people are like driving to the grocery store or driving to work, see the truck and say ‘oh, I need to fill out the census,’” she said.
