2020 Census response deadline uncertain, federal courts hear appeals to continue the count
As of October 1, 2020, the online census survey is still live.
Story and photo by Lauren Stauffer
In an email from the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County’s Census Team less than 24 hours before the September 30 deadline announced in August by the Census Bureau, another change to the deadline has been issued.
“A decision regarding when the census count ends remains in the Courts. The Trump administration ordered the count to end on September 30, a decision which was challenged in Court. Last week, a preliminary injunction was granted requiring the Census Bureau to continue the count until the original deadline of October 31. That order has been appealed to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yesterday, the Census Bureau announced that operations would end on October 5, which is also being contested.”
The City and County Census Team works with community partners, regional Census offices, and others to provide localized information, marketing, and coordinated resources to assist in communicating the importance of city and county residents to respond in the decennial census.
According to the City and County Census Team, the response rates for the region are as follows:
City of Pittsburgh: 62.7%
Allegheny County: 71.6%
Pennsylvania (this includes enumeration numbers): 98.4%
According to NPR, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a new ruling on Wednesday, September 30 that upholds a lower court decision to allow census “fieldwork and data collection” to continue at the re-planned pandemic deadline of October 31, which the Bureau announced back in April.
As of October 1, the online census survey is still live at 2020census.gov and the toll free census response number 1-844-330-2020 is operable with census takers available to record counts by phone.
This article is sponsored by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development.
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