CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Senator Joe Manchin is calling the U.S. Census Bureau’s decision to move the self-response deadline up one month “asinine.”
On Wednesday’s MetroNews ‘Talkline,’ Manchin (D-W.Va.) questioned the decision announced earlier in the week to move the deadline to respond from October 31 to September 30. The date was originally July 31 but pushed to October 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“How in the living daylights does this Mr. Steven Dillingham, the director of the U.S. Census Bureau, make a decision and put out a statement without contacting Congress at all,” Manchin said.
Census officials continue to go door-to-door in all 55 counties in West Virginia to those who have not responded as the state’s response rate sits at 54.7 percent. That percentage is good for 48th overall in response rate among the 50 states, as of Wednesday.
The national response rate is 63.1 percent as of Wednesday.
Manchin said an inaccurate county would have major consequences on every resident in West Virginia including less federal funding. He said the moving the deadline once again will put a time crunch on the volunteers out in the field.
“West Virginia relies more on Census-directed funding than almost any other state, and every West Virginian who doesn’t complete the Census represents $20,000 over the course of ten years in lost funding for schools, roads, and other essential services,” Manchin said in a released statement.
“The extra month is vital to an accurate count since many door-knocking programs and other in-person outreach efforts – which are vital to counting our hard-to-reach rural areas – were halted due to the pandemic. This change hurts West Virginia, and I will be asking the Census Bureau to reverse their decision and give every West Virginian and American the chance to be counted.”
The @uscensusbureau has made the asinine decision to change the deadline to respond to the 2020 Census from Oct 31st to Sept 30th, an entire month earlier than previously decided.
— Senator Joe Manchin (@Sen_JoeManchin) August 5, 2020
Jefferson County is the top county in Census response at 70.6 percent while Wood is at 68.9 and Berkeley is 67.6.
Twenty-five of the 55 counties sit below 50 percent response rate with McDowell County least responsive at 23.6 percent. Pocahontas County has a 24.6 percent response rate and Mingo has a 27.7 percent rate as of Tuesday afternoon.
To respond to the 2020 U.S. Census, click HERE.