Coronavirus Furloughs Hamper 2020 Census Efforts In Orange County
ORANGE COUNTY, CA — More problems surmount Orange County's 2020 Census taking, officials say. Already concerned about an undercount of residents before the coronavirus pandemic, they urged residents to fill out the census form online and to get the word out to hard-to-reach groups about the importance of being counted.
The census determines how many members of Congress are assigned in each state and is also used to determine how much federal money states receive for various programs. Field workers are relied upon to go door-to-door and use specialized training and language skills to help hard-to-count residents, including recent immigrants, stand up and be counted.
"Our (census) field workers going door-to-door had to basically get furloughed, and now they're working on other projects or taking time off," said Orange County Supervisor Lisa Bartlett, who also serves as president of the California State Association of Counties.
"We're going to have to advertise, recruit and train a new workforce," Bartlett said. "There may be some individuals from the previous workforce available for the next time around. But part of our challenge is we have a diverse population, so we need our field workforce to be multilingual and fluent in a number of languages ... We are petrified we don't have enough time to get an accurate count and we'll be stuck with lower numbers for the next ten years."
Bartlett has sought help from Orange County's congressional delegation in extending deadlines for submitting information for the 10-year count. Federal officials pushed a July 31 deadline to Aug. 14, and Bartlett said she hopes to get more delays if the pandemic lingers.
This census is the first that respondents can complete online.
Rep. Gil Cisneros Jr., D-Fullerton, said he filled out his census form last week online and encouraged others to do the same.
"Amid the coronavirus crisis, we cannot forget about the importance of filling out the census," he said. "This only happens once every ten years, and we need to get a fair and accurate count. For every person we miss in the census, our district will lose $2,000 in federal funding. From hospitals, schools, small businesses, police stations, and fire departments, the census is critical to ensure California's 39th District gets the resources and funding we need. I encourage everyone to fill out the census and take part in shaping the future of our community."
According to Cal State Long Beach political science professor Justin Levitt, there are concerns that online participation won't help with reaching traditionally undercounted populations such as recent immigrants and the indigent because many don't have access to the internet.
"We haven't heard yet if they're looking for alternative methods of counting them, but it wouldn't surprise me if the census starts looking at state databases like driver's licenses," Levitt said. "Coronavirus outbreaks are going to make it much harder than the traditional door-to-door process."
Before COVID-19, California officials were already worried they would lose a congressional seat because of a decrease in population growth, according to Levitt.
"Population growth in California has really slowed this decade," he said. "Part of it is immigration has slowed down. States that rely on immigration for population growth like California are slowing because of that."
The increasing cost of living in California is also driving down the population, in his assessment.
California is often undercounted by one million to two million because many immigrants fear to respond to an official government inquiry, Levitt said, explaining that this worry is "more real than ever this year, with controversy over the citizenship question that Trump administration officials pushed for," but had to abandon due to court rulings.
Fill out your census today at my2020census.gov
City News Service, contribution from Patch Staffer Ashley Ludwig.
This article originally appeared on the San Juan Capistrano Patch
