Returns low: Census work resumes

COLFAX—Census takers were set to begin follow-up work Aug. 9 with households that had not responded to the 2020 Census. Whitman County is one of 20 eastern Washington counties being impacted by the work and is one of the counties with the lowest response rate.

Washington state is tied for fourth best-responding state in the nation at 68.9%. Whitman County is on the lower end of the response spectrum with 59% returns. Ferry County is the lowest in eastern Washington with 39.4% while Benton is the best-responding of the east side with 72.7%.

The national response rate as of Aug. 8 was 63.2%.

Census takers will be knocking on doors and can be identified by a valid government ID badge with their photograph, a U.S. Department of Commerce watermark and an expiration date on the badge. They will help residents fill out the nine-question Census forms. Census questions include name, age, gender, date of birth and race.

If no one is home when the census taker visits, the census taker will leave a notice of their visit with information about how to respond online, by phone or by mail. People are encouraged to cooperate with census takers and ensure that everyone who was living in their household as of April 1, 2020, is counted. Those who don’t respond will receive further follow-up.

Households can still respond now by completing and mailing back the paper questionnaire they received, by responding online at 2020census.gov, or by phone at 844-330-2020. Households can also respond online or by phone in one of 13 languages and find assistance in many more. Those that respond will not need to be visited to obtain their census response.

The U.S. Constitution mandates a census of the population every 10 years. The goal of the 2020 Census is to count everyone who lives in the United States on April 1, 2020 (Census Day). Census statistics are used to determine the number of seats each state holds in the U.S. House of Representatives and informs how billions of dollars in federal funds will be allocated by state, local and federal lawmakers annually for the next 10 years.