That said, census takers say there is resistance. One said that doormen of high-rise buildings had denied entry in roughly three out of every four locations in an upscale Chicago neighborhood, usually citing Covid-19 concerns. The problem is bad enough that New York City last week sent a notice ordering building managers to let census workers in.
In Miami-Dade County, where four in 10 of the countys 870,000 households have not filled out census forms, the weekly rate of virus cases is 281 per 100,000 residents, dwarfing the national average of about 13.5.
But rural areas also are at risk. Largely untouched by the coronavirus outbreak a month ago, the 13,500 residents of Montanas Big Horn County have recorded 81 cases in the past week 608 per 100,000. Fourteen people have died.
In 2010, about half the countys households filled out census forms. This year, only about one in five has done so, and a Crow Indian reservation is in a lockdown to prevent spread of the virus, deterring census takers from going there.
The initial plan was to go into communities when Covid rates were manageable, said Denice Ross, a senior fellow at the National Conference on Citizenship. Thats why they needed extra time. By compressing it, theyve lost that flexibility.
Even if the count goes well, some of the biggest challenges lie ahead.
In the past, census-takers submissions have undergone exhaustive accuracy checks, from reviewing buildings deemed vacant to resampling door-knockers work to detect curbstoning making up survey responses. The latest operations update cites plans for streamlining backend operations, raising fears that some of that scrutiny will be scrapped.read more
As Census Count Resumes, Doubts About Accuracy Continue to Grow
