By Allison Perrine
Ten years ago, when the U.S. Census was last conducted, New Jersey residents were underrepresented. Because of that, the state left “billions of dollars in federal aid on the table,” said Gov. Phil Murphy in a press conference May 6.
He and other elected officials in the Two River area are now urging residents not to make the same mistake in 2020.
The census is more than just a headcount. Mandated in the Constitution, it helps determine congressional representation, federal funding and much more. It is conducted every 10 years and allows state officials to redistrict congressional and state legislative districts to account for population changes. The goal is to have a complete and accurate count of U.S. residents in all 50 states and its five territories.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of May 9, 60.2 percent of New Jersey residents have self-responded to the survey online, by phone or by mail. In Monmouth County specifically, 63.9 percent of its residents have self-responded. In 2010, when the census was last conducted, a total of 70.1 Monmouth County residents self-responded.
“We need to get this number up – get it up meaningfully and get it up fast,” Murphy said. “Ensuring every New Jerseyan is properly and accurately counted in the 2020 census is incredibly important,” he added. “So much rides on an accurate and full count.”
In Middletown Township, Mayor Tony Perry explained how the benefits far outweigh the time spent filling out the census form. “It’s about all these little things that are little – in terms of the time it takes you to fill it out and the impact that it has on you,” he said. “The time is so minuscule.
“Everybody wants great roads. Everybody wants to have their voices heard, whether it’s in Washington or in Trenton. It’s about special education. It’s about education funding” and senior citizen benefits, he said.
Perry said education funding from the state has been cut by more than $2 million over the years. If people fill out the census completely and accurately, the township hopefully won’t have additional cuts over the next decade,
he said.
He added that now could be easier than ever to fill it out, as most people are now working remotely from home in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and have more time on their hands. “Our lives and our representation are going to be dictated by this estimate that is done for the next decade,” he said.
The data on census response rates is available for some Two River area municipalities. As of May 9, that includes Atlantic Highlands with a 69.4 percent response; Fair Haven at 75.1 percent; Highlands, 50.2 percent; Little Silver, 77.0 percent; Monmouth Beach, 51.7 percent; Oceanport, 68.5 percent; Red Bank, 57.3 percent; Rumson, 67.9 percent; Sea Bright, 38.0 percent; and Tinton Falls, 67.4 percent.
“It is very important,” said Rumson Mayor Joseph K. Hemphill of the census. “Outside of the effects it has on the U.S. House of Representatives and district boundaries on the local, state and national levels, the results directly impact the federal funding for our communities over the next 10 years. Not to mention, the preparation for emergency responses, disease outbreaks, and even the day-to-day functional planning of our town stem from these results.
“With everything that is going on in our world today, I highly encourage our residents to complete the census as soon as they can so that we all can plan appropriately for the next decade,” said Hemphill.
This year the COVID-19 pandemic has hindered the U.S. Census Bureau’s ability to get more residents to respond the survey. During previous surveys, census takers would go door-to-door to seek responses from those who hadn’t already self-responded. That can’t happen in New Jersey because of the governor’s executive order to stay at home. However, surveys can still be completed online, over the phone or by mail, without having to physically meet with a census taker and the self-response deadline has been extended from July 31 to Oct. 31. Several other extensions for Alaska, island areas, Puerto Rico and more are available on the U.S. Census 2020 website at 2020census.gov.
By law, the Census Bureau must deliver each state’s population total to the president, which determines the number of seats a state receives in the U.S. House of Representatives. Originally planned for Dec. 31, the revised delivery date to the president is April 30, 2021.
Minority communities are traditionally underrepresented on the census, so before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, tutors from Literacy NJ Monmouth were teaching in-person lessons to English as a Second Language (ESL) students on the importance of the census. The tutors also reviewed the questions on the survey with students to be sure they understood the vocabulary.
That has changed, said Jhanna Even, program director with Literacy NJ Monmouth. Since March 15 when formal tutoring sessions shut down, the group switched to remote online learning. Some tutors are still teaching lessons through the Zoom application and FaceTime. They continue to call students, encourage them to fill out the census and ask that they have five friends and family do the same.
“A majority of the students we called have either already filled it out online or will do so shortly,” said Even. So far, they have had a 41 percent participation rate of students engaging in the remote learning to take the census, which Even said is “great” considering it was put in place so quickly.
The article originally appeared in the May 14 – 20, 2020 print edition of The Two River Times.
