The Census is coming… The Census is coming!

Households can respond to the 2020 U.S. Census online, by phone, or by mail through August 14, 2020.

If you have seen the April 1, 2020 date a lot, it is only the reference point by which they are asking you to count from: how many people are living in your house as of April 1, 2020.

The deadline to complete the census is August 14, 2020. Some municipalities have been telling residents that the deadline is April, but the law firm representing the census reached out to A Little Beacon Blog to clarify that. According to Beth McLaughlin, Assistant Account Executive at burson cohn & wolfe: “April 1 is not a deadline, it is Census Day – a reference date to help households know who to count on their census questionnaires. Households can respond to the 2020 Census online, by phone, or by mail through August 14.” You can see a revised schedule of census steps here, in response to COVID-19.

The Census 2020 was doing a big push to get everyone to do it online before the time of the pandemic. Many presentations were made at Beacon’s City Council to educate people, and talk about plans to have free stations at the library and such to get people to fill it out - all of that gone now.

The Census is what gets money to your city. Grants. Money to do things. If there is still money in the federal or state budget after this pandemic (Gov. Cuomo is currently very upset about this, as the federal package to help New York State only included COVID-19 reimbursement money, and nothing, he says, for the rest of the budget, a majority of which is education, he said during today’s and yesterday’s briefings).

The census gets Beacon money via “federal funds to local communities for schools, roads, and other public services” according to the census website, and in past presentations by people at City Council meetings.

Take The Census Online. It’s Easy - Promise

The people who presented at City Council meetings were pushing hard for online submissions. However, you can write in or call in your answers.

Here’s how you do it:

1. To go online, you could use the letter you got in the mail. That has a special code that you’ll type into the website, and it automatically pulls up your address. However, if you don’t have that card, you can find an alternate link below the code boxes where you will be taken to a different page, where you can input your address.

2. Go to the census website: www.my2020census.gov

3. Type in your special code. The website will pull up your address.

4. Don’t have the code? No problem. Click the alternate link below that to be taken to a page to input your address.

5. You begin by putting in your name.

6. You put in the names of other people living in your house. Any type of person who regularly lives in your house should be counted.

7. You’ll put in their names, gender, and nationality.

8. That’s it.

If you’re afraid of telling the government where you live… they already know. So you could just fill this out and be a part of funneling money to Beacon. Results from the 2020 Census will be used to determine the number of seats each state has in Congress and your political representation at all levels of government.

Deadline is August 14, 2020.