Connecticut has only one shot to capture an accurate count for the 2020 Census.
Secretary of the State Denise Merrill came on the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities’ “The Municipal Voice” program on WNHH Radio to underscore just how critical this once-a-decade count is for the state as a whole.
Merrill serves as a co-chair of the Connecticut Complete Count Committee.
She said leaders from every echelon of government have come together to ensure every person in the state is counted.
“Our goal is to reach every town in the state,” Merrill said, “and ultimately every person in the state to make sure they realize the importance of filling out the census form.”
Traditionally, residents filled out the census by a form that came in the mail. This year is the first year that the census is adopting online forms, and there are still many communities that are hesitant to fill out the forms or are hard to track.
“We are concerned that people are worried about their data privacy. It’s a big issue nationally,” the secretary said.
One of the main concerns from potential countees is whether the data could be used to track non‑U.S. citizens and possibly deport them. Earlier in the planning stages of the census, the Trump Administration proposed including a question about citizenship on the census. Although the question did not make it into the final form, she said, the news about the proposal may have heightened these fears.
Even if the citizenship question had remained, the secretary said that “there’s no way that the census data would ever be used to track people for their citizenship. There are several laws and statutes that protect that data.”
“Interestingly, the group that is hardest to count are children under five,” Merrill said.
A potential cause of this problem is misinformation about who the census is for.
In order to combat these fears and misinformation, the Connecticut Complete Count Committee has turned to local governments asked them to form their own municipal-level Complete Count Committees.
The power of the local level is that people know each other, the secretary said. She named Bridgeport in particular for its creative forms of communication – at churches and youth sports leagues, for example.
“The first wave of forms will go out in March, and what we’re counting on is local community efforts to reach people where they are.”
The importance of the census is that it does not just determine the allotment of federal funding that Connecticut will receive in the next year, but also the next ten years.
“If we don’t know how many people would qualify for a healthcare program or SNAP — those are programs that are supported by the federal government — our numbers will be smaller and we won’t get the funding.”
Connecticut has a new portal for all Census 2020 information, Complete Count Connecticut, which can be found here or on social media here.
“The Municipal Voice” airs every other Wednesday. The next episode airs on Feb. 26. Listen to the latest episode by clicking on the video at the top of this story.
The mailers are about a month away.
Other towns in Connecticut have huge signs and banners all over town encouraging people to participate in the 2020 Census.
Where is the advertising in New Haven?