Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the census news was not good for Rhode Island. Population shifts across the country pointed to the likelihood of the state losing one of its two seats in the U.S. House. The only chance to avoid that was a robust effort to turn out undercounted residents to see if there are actually enough people living here to keep the two seats.
But the very week a statewide community awareness campaign was set to kick off in March, much of the state and nation went into lockdown due to the pandemic.
The result, despite the increased stakes, has been a dip in the state’s response rate of almost 7 percentage points compared with 2010, to 60% as of July 22.
So, should the state just throw in the towel and say goodbye to the House seat? Well, what was a slim chance to save the seat before the pandemic may be gone now. But that does not mean the state has nothing left to fight for in ensuring an accurate census count.
As this week’s Hot Topic on page 7 notes, federal funding for education, roads, bridges and various services are tied to population data.
And minority groups, in particular, that have long fought for equal representation in government have a strong interest in ensuring accurate census counts.
Thankfully, there’s still time to make up for at least some of the lost ground on the count. Census Bureau workers will soon finally begin going door to door in Rhode Island.
It you haven’t yet, please fill out and return the census forms. Funding for something you or someone you care about could end up depending on it.
