PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) -- If you haven’t responded to the U.S. Census, time is running out. Thursday is the last full day to do so.
Those who wish to fill out the form online can go to 2020census.gov. The deadline for entries through the website is 11:59 p.m. Hawaii Standard Time on Thursday, which is 5:59 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Friday.
To phone in a response, dial 844-330-2020. Census forms mailed in must be post-marked postmarked by the end of the day.
An accurate count is critical, because the data determines the number of congressional seats each state gets. For example, because of population changes between 2000 and 2010, Pennsylvania and New Jersey each lost a seat in the U.S. House.
Census data also helps determine how $1.5 trillion in federal spending is distributed.
“Critical funding for schools, for our seniors, businesses, veterans, food distribution programs, Medicare and so many other important services in our community,” Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh said on Wednesday.
Arkoosh says more county residents responded to the Census this year compared to 2010, but enumerators who go door to door have had their share of challenges reaching people.
“People are understandably nervous about opening their door, and this is a big part of why even the Census originally requested to have until the end of October, so that there could be enough time for direct outreach to households that they were having trouble getting a response from,” Arkoosh said.
The deadline to complete the Census count has changed several times in the last few months. Initially, the Census Bureau pushed it from the end of July to the end of October. The Commerce Department then changed it to late September, then early October.
The Trump administration argued they needed enough time to process the data and submit the information by the end of the year. Civil rights groups and local governments argued minorities and people in places that were difficult to count would be missed. A federal judge in California sided with them, but on Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court, in a 7-1 ruling, decided the Trump administration could end the Census count early.
“An early ending to the 2020 Census data collection hurts our nation, our democracy, and especially the hard-to-count communities of color. A rushed Census count can only be achieved by compromising data quality,” Robert Santos, president-elect of the American Statistical Association, said in a statement in response to the Supreme Court ruling.
The Census Bureau reports 99.9% of U.S. households have been accounted for. Census takers acquired 33.1% of the information, while 66.8% of homes answered online, on the phone or in the mail.
However, the ASA, which put together a task force to analyze the issues with the 2020 Census, raised concerns in a recent report about the quality of the data.
The organization uses examples of neighbors, answering by proxy, and giving inaccurate information. Or college students who may have moved from their dorm back home due to the pandemic and being counted twice.